First Aid
by The Amazing Soup
Summary: The survivors meet a new and certainly interesting character, but can he help them survive the zombie apocalypse? My first L4D2 fanfic, involves an OC. Also there may be some RochellexNick later on. Rated T for violence and language.
1. First Aid Chapter 1: Ending Lives

**Author's Note: **So this is my first Left 4 Dead 2 fic; actually, my first fic at all, so be gentle :P

Left 4 Dead 2, its characters, and zombies are all property of Valve. Andy is not.

Enjoy the story! Remember to read and review!

Chapter 1: Lives Ending

They were dead. All of them. He just couldn't believe how this had happened. All of them were friends, good shots, but most importantly they were all _ready._ But now they were dead. Andy looked down at Taylor's body; she had been the last to fall. But everyone dies sometime; this goddamn apocalypse was a testament to _that_ at least. He let her lie; only stooping low to the Savannah street to close her still open eyelids with two of his fingers. All of them were dead, but he was alive. He would carry on in their memories for as long as he could, kill every one of these bastards with his bare, god-damn hands if he had to. He stood again, wiped away his salty tears with the scuffed leather of his jacket, and smoothed his hand through his long blonde hair. His right hand still held the rifle he had used to slay the tank that had claimed the last three of his closest friends; in his former life it was his guaranteed zombie-buster, the HK 416, now battered and smoking, but still his only ally. He shook his emotions back into the dark corners of his mind and looked at his surroundings. He was by an abandoned semi-truck by the plaza of the hotel he had been staying at. One of the CEDA evac centers was just a few meters away. For now, there was a dead silence echoing through the street. He chuckled at the pun.

"Hehe, dead silence." Then he laughed; not because he thought the pun was funny, but because of how fucked up his life was right now. It was almost funny.

Several loud bangs made him freeze. He snapped to alert, dropping the empty clip out of his gun and jamming a new one in, and pulled the bolt back into place. He heard the telltale signs of gunfire, and the inhuman moans of those undead-sons-of bitches.

"You wanna go again?" he screamed, "then fucking bring it!"

--{()}--

Coach ran into the saferoom, a large wave of zombies crowding behind him.

"Hey, close that door!" Ellis yelled, peppering the zombies behind coach with his Mossberg shotgun. Nick and Rochelle both lunged for the door, slamming it behind Coach on several flailing zombie limbs, which Coach promptly disembodied with his chainsaw. With the door finally shut, Coach let out a loud laugh.

"You made me proud out there people!" He then looked around the saferoom, spotted a food pantry, and walked towards it, rubbing his hands together. As he rifled through the cabinets, Rochelle and Nick tried to extricate themselves from the other, their limbs tangled and Rochelle on top off Nick. They finally succeeded, brushing themselves off while panting, red in the face.

"You know, you two almos' looked like you wur havin' fun down there." Ellis snickered, grabbing more shells for his shotgun from the table.

"Yeah, why don't you tell that to that to the hunter-zombie that would have ripped your guts out if I wasn't there." Nick replied frostily.

"Now, now, children." Rochelle chided in a mock-motherly voice.

The conversation stopped when they heard what they thought was a squeal from where Coach was. He pulled out a can of peaches, his face hidden behind the massive grin he was wearing.

"Uh huh! Peach cobbla!"

Nick looked at Ellis, and Ellis looked at Nick, and Rochelle looked between the two. Then all three burst out laughing.

"Was that a squee I jus' heard from ya, Coach?" Ellis managed between bouts of laughter. Now Nick was rolling on the ground, clutching his stomach and laughing.

"Yeah, yeah, keep it up you two. Just wait until I find some a' that cobbla they make at Joe's down the street. Then you two'll be laughin'." Coach said, his eyebrow quirked and half of a smile creeping up his face.

"Wait! Do you hear that?" Rochelle said, staring intently out the window, her Uzi at the ready. Immediately the other three stopped what they were doing and looked out the window. Right at the edge of the hotel plaza, there was a throng of zombies, all clumped around something that was _clearly _giving them trouble. Just then a whole wave of zombies fell away in bits and pieces, revealing a blonde man dishing out all that they could handle. In his hands he had a fire axe, the handle soaked in blood, along with the black leather jacket that he had on. He was up to his knees in dead zombies, and they just kept piling up. Suddenly, a distant screech could be heard, the unmistakable noise of one of those hooded bastards. The zombie was crawling its way behind him, so it could leap on him and rip him apart.

"We gotta get out there and help 'im!" Coach yelled, grabbing his suppressed Uzi. They all immediately grabbed their weapons and bashed open the saferoom door, running to his rescue. They were ten feet away when the hooded zombie was finally able to jump on him, its claws tearing mercilessly into his flesh, while the man tried to push it off of him. Then their path to him was blocked by a mob of the undead bastards. Coach took the lead, sawing through flesh and bone with his chainsaw, blood and unrecognizable organs splattering everywhere. Rochelle and Nick fired their machineguns, the bullets tearing through zombies. Ellis ran into the throng, bashing a path to the man, blasting heads off of any zombie that got too close.

"Get it off me! Ah, this guy is tearing me apart!" The man yelled. The path was now clear and it was not a good sight. The zombie was sitting on top of him and ripping at him, blood soaking the man's white shirt and jacket.

Ellis came to the rescue, knocking the zombie off of him, and then blowing its face off with his shotgun. The other three arrived soon after, inspecting the scene. Ellis was trying to help him out of the puddle of his blood, but it was no good. The man was actually a fairly young boy, with blonde hair down to his eyebrows, which were now stained with his own blood. He turned so he was on his hands and knees and lost his breakfast.

"Hey, kid, we have to see how bad it is before we can heal you up." Nick stooped down, and lifted up the scratched and torn white shirt. Underneath it was just as bad. Whole pieces of flesh missing, large, gaping slash marks, blood quickly pouring from each one.

"Kid, I'm gonna need you to bite down on this." Nick offered him a small, cylindrical piece of wood. Nick didn't want to put the kid in any more pain, but he had to stitch this up and _fast._ He grabbed a sowing needle from the pocket of his white jacket and then lifted up the boy's shirt and started to work.

--{()}--

"So howdya think he's gon hold up?" Ellis asked the other two. They were standing several feet back, trying to give Nick some room. Coach and Rochelle looked at the injured boy lying limp on the ground. He couldn't be any more than seventeen. They exchanged worried looks.

"Sweety, I don't know."

"Yeah. Seems like he took a pretty bad hit, son. I don't know if he can get up from that."

Then finally, Nick lowered the boys shirt after what seemed like hours and proclaimed the news.

"Anyone have a first-aid kit?"

So what? Good? Bad? Review plz!


	2. First Aid Chapter 2: SuperAss Zombies

**Author's Note:** So I'll probably be cranking out chapters these next few days, but there'll probably be a dry stretch for finals. Sorry. Also! Don't forget to review. I'd love to hear what you have to say about it. Praise, criticism, what you liked, what you didn't, and what you want to see happen would all make writing much easier. :D

Now, to the story!

First Aid Chapter 2: Super-Ass Zombies

"Yeah, I got 'un." Ellis responded. The young Savannah native walked over to Nick and took the first aid kit off of his back, eagerly handing it over to Nick.

"So how's he doin' Nick? He gonna live?" Coach asked, turning to the Conman that leaned over the young boy who appeared to be passed out, his arms laying limp on the sidewalk.

"Hard to say." Nick replied, wiping his blood covered hands on an extremely dirty handkerchief, which he promptly put back into his jacket pocket. "It's very touch-and-go at this point. That crazy kid's lucky, though. He'd be dead if that motherfucker didn't miss his vital organs." Nick then kneeled again to administer further care to the unknown boy.

"How did you learn to patch up wounds like that, Nick?" Rochelle asked, looking concernedly at the young boy whom Nick was steadily bandaging around the abdomen.

"When you're in my line of work, you get to see some crazy shit. This isn't the worst I've ever seen."

Rochelle quirked an eyebrow and was about to say something when Coach halted her train of thought with his loud, deep voice.

"Hey! Y'all better hurry up over there; we got some major company!" Coach shouted over the all-too-audible moans and screams of the infected. He turned back quickly to the oncoming horde of the infected, which was made up of maybe a hundred zombies.

"Hey, I'm going as fast as I can!" Nick yelled back, hastily wrapping bandages around the boy's wounded stomach. Suddenly, the boy took a sharp breath of air and gasped, his eyes opening wide. He saw Nick's surprised face looking back down at him, then at the bandages he was applying.

"Thanks." The boy muttered his voice gravelly. He cleared his throat and looked around to see Ellis and Rochelle quickly joining Coach's line of defense against the oncoming wave of zombies. He boy sat up woozily, and patted down the ground around him. "Where's my gun?" He demanded of Nick, who quickly scanned the ground and found the advanced rifle lying two feet away. He handed it back to the boy, who used it as a crutch to steady himself as he stood up. He was a wobbly, but seemed fine to Nick. The boy dropped the empty clip in his gun and jammed in a fresh, cocking the bolt again.

"Time to show these filthy motherfuckers what it means to mess with me!" And with that he hobbled past Nick to the other three survivors. Ellis looked behind him and had to do a double-take to make sure he was _actually_ seeing the same kid he thought'd be dead walking up to them to kill zombies. The blonde-haired boy took his place in the line beside Ellis, bringing the sights of his rifle up to his face. The horde was getting dangerously close and the four of them were all shooting like no tomorrow, blowing off zombie limbs, heads, and disemboweling a few. The boy spotted a group of closely packed zombies and let loose a long burst, savoring its gory repercussions as the zombies hit the ground in various states of dismemberment.

The fight continued, with Nick soon joining them with his Uzi, and finally the mass of zombies seemed to be thinning. A zombie ran and got close to Coach, who beat it back with his gun, just before Rochelle shot half of its head off with her MAC 10. The zombies were gradually getting closer and closer, until they were practically climbing on top of each other to get a swipe at the survivors. The blonde boy let his gun fall to his side, secured by its strap, and he pulled out a fireman's axe, which he used to cleave the heads off of several zombies that were getting a little too close to Ellis.

Finally, Nick walked up to the last zombie, its front half crawling towards them, and savagely beat it on the head with his baseball bat. The quintet were scanning around them and reloading, relishing the small victory.

"Not a bad day, I guess." The blonde boy said, smirking. "Almost get torn to death by that hunter, get patched up, and rip apart a big-ass horde. Nice."

"Hey, Young'un, wutcho name?" Coach asked, gesturing to the boy while reloading his Uzi.

"Andrew. But you can call me Andy if you want. Thanks for saving my ass by the way. Care to do an introduction?" He added, gesturing to the other three.

"Mah name's Ellis. Some of my friends call me Elli, but I think it sounds lahk a girl's name, so you can just call me Ellis." He took off his trucker hat, ruffled his hair, and then put the cap back on. Andy just quirked an eyebrow and then nodded.

"My name's Coach. Don't ask for no other name, cause you ain't gon get one." The large black man said, scratching his face.

"Name's Nick. Doubt you'll remember it, though I don't really care." Nick said with a scowl, his back turned as he watched behind them.

"My name's Rochelle. So where did you come from? And why in the hell is someone your age wandering around at a time like this?" Rochelle said, a concerned look on her face.

Andy let loose a short bark of a laugh. "What am _I _doing? Trying to survive. And don't even pull that 'you're too young' shit. I just watched three of my friends die today. I doubt you can say the same." A brutal silence settled on the group. At the last remark, Andy scowled and straightened his leather jacket.

The other four looked at each other in disbelief. It seemed like the same thought went through all of their minds. _Who the hell is this kid?_

Andy continued as if nothing had happened. "Any idea on where to go? I guess that hotel evac station isn't an option, seeing as you all ran the fuck outta there."

Ellis was the first to recover from the terrible news that came from their new addition to their team. "Well, see, Coach n' I had this idea where we could go ta a gun store we know on tha way ta tha mall where we was gonna go for evac."

"Good idea. I could certainly use some ammo." Andy remarked while he checked his jacket pockets for ammo.

"Are we going to go yet? I'm getting old over here." Nick remarked snidely from his stance.

"Heh. No need to worry 'bout that Nick; you'd just end up like me." Coach retorted with a smirk.

Andy snorted, and then they made their way down the street past the semi-truck and towards a police barricade in the road. Andy stopped one last time by his friend's body, saying a short prayer. The others patiently waited, not willing to crush the kid any more than he probably already was.

As they reached the barricade, they saw a door to service the lower level of the road, and took it. Inside was a can of gasoline, and on the wall in a glass case was another fireman's axe.

"Ya know, I always wanted ta be an axe-murderer." Ellis remarked as he picked up the axe. The group all looked at him worriedly.

"You might want to keep that to yourself, sweetie." Rochelle commented with a ghost of a smile.

The group ventured downstairs, Andy in the lead with his HK 416. Guarding the back was Coach, who had filled up his chainsaw with the gas. The awaiting room held little resistance, save for a few disoriented zombies and a mangled corpse.

"Looks like someone was hungry." Andy said darkly.

"Young 'un! Stop that shit! Y'all are gonna make me sick." Coach frowned at Andy, instantly picking up on his morbid sense of humor.

"Hey, man. I don't tell lies. I just don't sugarcoat anything either. But hey, being a pessimist comes in handy." Andy replied, shrugging.

"Can we get going now? Jesus." Nick piped in, whining with a passion.

"Nick, whining doesn't help anything." Rochelle commented as they opened the closet door to find nothing.

"Sorry, mom." Rochelle gave him a frosty glare, and Followed Andy and Ellis outside onto the next street. Outside the group was met with a pick-up truck and a singular zombie leaning against the underpass wall. Andy whispered something to Ellis, who held everyone back as he snuck towards the zombie. As he neared it, he unsheathed a long, serrated knife from inside of his jacket, and as he came up behind the zombie, grabbed it by the jaw and jammed the knife into the back of its neck, effectively severing its head as he pulled the knife out. He wiped the knife off on his leather jacket and turned back to the others, who were gaping at him.

"You coming?" He asked, perfectly calm.

"Man, y'all gotta teach me that trick! That's fuckin' bad-ass raght there!" Ellis exclaimed, jogging to keep up to Andy, who was now moving on.

Nick looked at Rochelle. She still had her mouth wide open. "Darling, you might want to close that before something bad happens to it." He commented snarkly. She immediately closed her mouth, her eyes widening. Nick laughed as he jogged to catch up to the other two. Rochelle was close behind, mumbling and trying to disguise her blushing face. Coach chuckled.

Suddenly, a high-pitched gurgling could be heard, as well as gasping and spitting.

"What tha hell was that?" Ellis asked, now underneath the overpass. He and Andy were standing side to side, the other three survivors forming a circle facing outwards.

"Hell if I know. What I do know? I'm gonna shoot it." Nick replied belligerently. The close-knit circle crept forward, each person scanning around them for the source of the disturbing sound. When they came out from beneath the overpass, they were about to cross a patch of green between streets when they saw the origin of the odd noises.

"_That _is the scariest fucking thing I have ever seen." Nick said, his eyes wide, staring at the grossly mutated female zombie. Before another word could be said, the thing's life was ended by Coach ripping it in half with his chainsaw. A green, sizzling substance erupted from it, and Coach rushed to get out of it.

"Godammit! I'm covered in fire-spit!" As he rushed out of the sizzling goo, the soles of his shoes started to burn away, and he had minor burns on his lower legs.

"So I guess we'll call that a spitter then?" Andy said, looking down at the body.

"That seems 'ppropriate." Ellis commented, as he noticed a few zombies that had been lured towards them by Coach's yelling.

"Oh shit! Watch out!" Coach bellowed. As the zombies neared, each of the survivors decided a small patch to deal with. Just as Nick was about to smash the first zombie with his bat, there was terrible couching, like a hardcore smoker, a yell, and then Nick was being dragged away by a long, slimy appendage, with the other infected eagerly following.

"Shoot the tongue!" Nick yelled, and Andy immediately saw the slippery tongue in question that was wrapped around Nick. He followed the appendage back to its owner with his gun sights, and saw a long, lanky zombie with a huge tongue hanging from his head; in addition to the other one. He immediately squeezed off a long burst that assured him the infected would be dead. The zombie exploded into a cloud of dark green smoke, and the tongue around Nick became limp and fell away. Andy rushed to his rescue, shooting anything in his way. He reached Nick and leant him his hand. Nick gratefully accepted it and helped himself to his feet.

"Hey y'all! We could use some help over here!" Ellis yelled to the pair while firing his shotgun. Immediately, a massive rock flew through the air and nearly flattened Andy. The source revealed itself; a ludicrously muscular zombie that ran on its massive arms and puny legs like a gorilla. It roared loudly and ran towards the two.

"Aww, come on!" Nick yelled in frustration.

"You have to be shitting me!" Andy yelled, reloading his rifle. The massive zombie was nearing them, so they ran down the street parallel to the one they just left, only to see it ended with a dead end. "Looks like this is where it ends," Andy said to Nick, as he brought the rifle back up to his shoulder. "for this ugly motherfucker anyways!"

"You know, kid; I'm starting to like you." Nick said as he flourished his Uzi.

Did you like it? I'm trying to make the survivors go fairly far each chapter, but I also want to work in as much banter as I can; the saferoom talks just aren't enough I don't think.

Good? Bad? Yes? No? Maybe so? Let me know by reviewing! I'm open to suggestions. :D


	3. First Aid Chapter 3: Lock and Load

**Author's Note: **All right! Chapter 3 of the saga! It's good to see some people are taking a liking to this story; I just made it out of a whim and decided, "Hey, why not?" I still don't know _what _you readers like though, and it would be great if you could review so I know what you want to see in the future. School is almost over, which means quicker updates, so there's that to look forward to. Special thanks to BlackxValentine for showing such an interest in my lil' old story.

Now on to the story! :D

First Aid Chapter 3: Lock and Load

"Kill it! Kill it!" Andy yelled, unloading his rifle into the hulking zombie charging towards him and Nick. The beast had taken well over a hundred rounds and was still coming after them, while the pair was running out of room.

"Hey, kid! I don't think this is working!" Nick yelled over the roar of gunfire. There was a hollow click and he reloaded his submachine gun, dropping the old clip like a rock.

"What makes you say that? Is it the fact that it's still coming for us, or that it won't fucking die?" Andy screamed, a scowl spreading over his face, his teeth barred in determination.

"Wait, I have an idea!" Nick yelled, running to the back of the underpass they were in. He dove behind a road block, leaving Andy alone with the massive zombie.

"Now is not the time to defect, Nick!" Andy yelled sarcastically at him, his gun smoking and sputtering. "Shit! I thought this thing was supposed to last for over ten thousand rounds!"Andy dropped the gun, pulling a pistol out of his jacket and firing vigorously at the hulk.

"Very funny." Nick said, re-emerging with a Molotov cocktail in hand. He threw the bottle, which broke over the huge zombie, instantly lighting it on fire. The zombie roared in rage and pain, and collapsed into the flames. "No, no. No need to thank me. I only saved your life is all." Nick said with a mock bow. Andy rolled his eyes and they walked back to the others, who were just finishing up shop as Coach dropped his empty chainsaw and whipped out a Glock he had found. Ellis dropped his shotgun on the ground and pulled a pistol from his back pocket.

"Hey, y'all, not to be a wet blanket, but I dun got no ammo left." Ellis said, taking off his hat only to place it back on his head.

"Yeah. I'm just about out too." Rochelle said, looking at her pockets.

"Y'all! I got an idea." Coach piped up, moving to the front of the group. "I know a gun store near here, on the way to the mall. We can stop there and get some new guns."

"Ah yeah! You talkin' bout Whitaker's, ain'tcha?" Ellis proffered. "That's where I got my first huntin' rifle. Did I ever tell y'all about the time my friend Keith an' I-"

"No, overalls, you didn't. And I really don't want to hear it." Nick interrupted him, rubbing the back of his neck with a scowl on his face.

"So what're we waiting here for? Let's move." Andy said with a finality. Nick glared at him, unhappy at how he was taking charge.

"What's the matter? You look like someone just took your candy." Rochelle said as she walked past him with a smirk on her face. Nick looked after her with his head cocked to the side, then shrugged and followed the rest of the group.

-{()}-

"Hey, Coach! Did I mention how much your plan sucks?" Andy yelled over the roar of gunfire and zombies. The five had almost made it to the gun store, but had alerted a massive horde when Ellis accidentally set off the alarm on a car right in front of the store. The group had formed a circle with their backs towards each other and killed the zombies with whatever they could. Only Coach had a real weapon, a Remmington 870. Just when the horde was starting to thin out, another wave of zombies ran to take its place.

"Hey! Kid! Try and give us some support from the store! I'll cover you!" Nick yelled to Andy as a large splash of blood got him in the face.

"Alright!" Ellis and Andy both yelled back at the same time. They looked at each other, then remembered what they were supposed to be doing and both ran towards the gun store. Nick covered them as best he could with his Desert Eagle, while Coach and Rochelle were having trouble putting up with the zombies by themselves. Nick separated himself from the two, nailing zombies that got in his line of fire.

"Nick! We need your help!" Rochelle yelled, beating back a zombie with a crowbar. Nick looked toward them and saw a hulking zombie with one massive arm lumbering towards them, clearly about to strike. He took a breath and pulled the trigger, putting a kiwi sized hole right in between its eyes. Ellis and Andy had finally reached the gun shop, and were quickly loading some lethal-looking rifles. They went to the window and let loose, spraying bullets through the zombie horde, reducing most of them to a pulpy pile. Nick ran back over to the other two, helping them finish off the last of the zombies.

"I know you missed me sweetheart, but I had some business to take care of." Nick said in a mock sweet voice to Rochelle. She rolled her eyes and grinned.

"If you two lovebirds are quite done, there are some sweet weapons in here." Andy commented to the pair. They both blushed and began to stutter, taking a step away from each other. Coach let loose a chuckle.

Once they were all in the gun store, Andy blockaded the door with a chair and a large chunk of countertop. Ellis squealed like a little girl, cradling an M16A2 in his hands.

"I wanted this rafle since I wus nine." Ellis remarked wistfully.

The five looked through the gun shop, amazed by how many guns there were. Rochelle perused carefully, finally settling on an MSG-90 sniper rifle. Nick bolted for the automatics, picking up a rugged AK-47. Ellis was loading himself up with a ridiculous amount of guns; an M16A2, a recreational hunting rifle, and a grenade launcher.

"Holy shit! Is that a grenade launcher?" Andy asked incredulously. Ellis merely grinned in a goofy way and nodded. Andy shook his head and went back to his selection, finally settling on a SCAR-H assault rifle and an M1014 automatic shotgun.

"Auto-shottie fo' me." Coach said as he picked up a fully loaded SPAS-12 shotgun.

Fully loaded, the group grabbed first aid kits and were about to open the door to walk upstairs.

"I've always wanted to say this; lock n' load!" Andy yelled, and Nick slapped his face with his palm.

**Author's note:** So what did you think? Sorry, but there's going to be a delay in updates, due to finals week. But have no fear! I will bring you updates as fast as I can, and hopefully in better quality than this. Also don't forget to review. Until next time, The Amazing Soup. :D


	4. First Aid Chapter 4: Kiss and Tell

**Author's Note: **Hopefully this chapter will be a satisfactory one, I know I promised to crank out chapters, but my finals took me by surprise. :P Finally got one though! And now it is summer for me, but I do have a social life, believe it or not, yet I still hope to get some more chapters your way. Enjoy. :D

First Aid Chapter 4: Kiss and Tell

Just as they were about to open the door to the stairs, a voice coming from an intercom to their right caught their attention.

"Hello there. I barricaded myself in the room upstairs with ample provisions. But in my haste, I forgot Coke! If y'all could get me some Cola at yonduh food store, I'd be happy to clear the way for yeh." The man's southern drawl announced.

"Mister, I understand a man's need for some snacks, and I'd be happy to get you some Cola if you'd clear the way." Coach responded, clearly reaching out to the man's love for snacks.

"Not only will I help clear the way to the mall for yeh, I'll even throw in the guns you stole from me free a' charge." The man responded.

"Dude, it's a deal." Andy said, jumping at the opportunity. The five then opened the door, and jogged up the stairs. After traversing the short jog to the food store, they found to their unpleasant surprise that the alarm was still active.

"No pain, no game baby!" Coach yelled as he busted open the doors, the screeching of zombies echoing into the store they were entering, along with a maniacal cackling. The group looked around them, trying to find the new threat, but the cackling only got closer. The five were inching backwards towards the rear of the store, creeping through the empty aisles. Just then a small figure with long arms and a hunched back leapt at Rochelle, grabbing her head and slamming it into one of the shelves.

"Shit!" Nick yelled as he ran after her, the zombie beginning to drag her away. He came upon them just before they were out of the store, and Rochelle was being pounded on by the normal infected as she tried to remove the thing on her head. It jumped off right as the zombies started to really beat on her, and she fell to the ground. She yelled out in pain and Nick gunned down the laughing zombie as well as the other infected with a long squeeze of his AK-47s trigger. Rochelle didn't look good, she was badly bruised, had deep cuts around her eyes, and was bleeding o the ground. "Oh shit, get up, get up." Nick said abnormally gently as he helped the woman up, taking care so she wouldn't hurt herself further. He pulled out a first aid kit and began applying some ointment to her face, as well as bandages for her arms and legs. "I should probably save this for me- but what the hell?" He said to her as he patched her up.

"Yeah, yeah. Touchy-feely and all that crap. Now if we could please get to the task at hand?" Andy said, holding the Coke in one hand and his pistol in the other, firing on the horde of zombies closing in on them. Nick stepped away from Rochelle and took out his AK-47, helping the other three cut a path through the zombies for Andy. Ellis saw an incredibly fat zombie and blew its top half off with his grenade launcher.

"Got a fat guy!" He yelled, and Coach glared at him darkly. "Oh, I wasn't talkin' 'bout you, Coach." Ellis said, clearly embarrassed.

The group rapidly made it to the motels behind the gun store, and up the stairs to the crazy man's door. Andy quickly dropped the Cola in the slot, and began helping the other four mow down wave after wave of zombies. Suddenly, there was a sound like a cow moo-ing, and then a huge zombie with one massive arm barreled into Ellis, who was taken totally by surprise, along with Andy who was sent flying off the balcony, only to collide with a car parked there, setting off a car alarm. The one-armed zombie started pounding Ellis into the ground, but Coach expertly killed it before it could inflict any lasting damage. Coach, Ellis, Nick, and Rochelle quickly went down to help Andy defend against the horde he started. Andy was still lying on the car. He let out a groan of pain, got up, and smashed the face of an infected standing too close. Rochelle expertly blew the head off of a closing infected with her MSG-90, and Nick cut two zombies in half with a fireman's axe, sending organs flying all over Ellis.

"Watchit! Deeuhm." Ellis complained, wiping innards off of his face. Suddenly there was a huge explosion at the oil tanker blocking their way, and the rest of the zombies were obliterated. The five set down the street, and turned onto the short road to the mall.

"Thank you Jesus!" Andy exclaimed, limping towards the mall. The five passed an overrun military outpost, as well as a CEDA evacuation tent. Nick quickly grabbed a defibrillator, and Andy gave him an incredulous look.

"Hey; you never know when we might need it." Nick said and he shrugged, quickly moving out of the evac tent. The group crept into the saferoom in the front of the mall, careful not to alert any other zombies. Ellis quickly closed the door, and everyone collapsed.

"We are a right, damn good team!" He yelled while sitting against the door. Coach was at a table in the corner, loading his person up on shotgun shells. Andy was on the other end of the room, trying to stretch the pain out of his back and shoulders. Nick was sitting in front of Rochelle, checking her injuries with a tender touch.

"Alright. We should probably get some rest. I'll take first shift, then Ellis, Coach, Andy, and then Rochelle." Nick said to the group. Andy nodded, took off his leather jacket, and curled up using it as a pillow. The blood on his white shirt was totally dry now, and it seemed like Andy wasn't going to do anything about it. Ellis took off his cap and repositioned it over his eyes, letting out a long sigh as he lowered himself onto his back. Coach had found some food, and was working with that. Rochelle walked up to Nick, who was standing watch by the door. He turned to her as she approached.

"Hey. I just wanted to say," she began the conversation awkwardly, looked down and took a pause. "Thanks back there. I don't know what would've happened if you hadn't…" Her voice trailed off as she looked him in the eyes. He looked back, his expression gentle.

"No problem. No woman deserves to be ridden like that." Rochelle raised her eyebrows, and Nick realized what he had said. He started to blush, and tried to stutter out an excuse. "Well, I mean…Not like, you know…" Finally, he just looked out the window, still brushing. Rochelle got on her tip toes and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks anyways." She said, then turned and laid down to sleep near the table Coach was working on. Nick looked after her; startled, confused, amazed, and giddy all at the same time.

"If you ask me, I'd say she likes you, slick." Andy said from his position on the floor.

So, what did you think? Review PLZ! I hope I can give you updates more frequently from now on. :P

Also, sorry if the writing isn't my best; I finished it around 1 A.M., so I ask your forgiveness. .


	5. First Aid Chapter 5: Lives Beginning

**Author's Note:** Alright! I said I'd deliver, and here's me trying to! :P Also! Very important. I know you all know this but Left 4 Dead 2 and its characters are the property of Valve. The idea of Andy belongs to me. :D

First Aid Chapter 5: Lives Beginning

_They were everywhere. Clawing through the windows, ripping open the door, and jumping down from the hole in the roof. He tried to stop them, but each one bore the face of one of his friends; each one disappointed in him, that he couldn't save them. Their faces were twisted in sadness and rage. "Why didn't you save me?" They all demanded angrily, clawing at him from their positions around him. They were dragging him down, still demanding, screaming. "Why didn't you save me?" They all intoned in their human voices, warped with rage. "I tried!" He pleaded, telling each one as they swallowed him up in their mass. "I tried…" He whimpered, a small ball of humanity trapped in a sea of monstrosities. His father was making his way through them, splitting them up, yelling. "Andy! You have to go!" He yelled, beating them back. They were swallowing his father, and he yelled his last. "You have to go!"_

"No!" Andy yelled, bolting upright in the saferoom. The dreams were still fading, and Nick was nagging him to take his shift.

"Andy. You gotta go take your shift. I don't care what sort of dreams you're having." Nick said firmly, his hand on Andy's shoulder.

"Yeah, they were just dreams." Andy said absently, looking through the saferoom window into the mall. Nick nodded as Andy got up, then took the boy's place on the floor. Andy rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he grabbed his weapons off of the table. He took his place at the saferoom door and looked out, seeing only a few commons meandering about the ruins of the mall.

"Just dreams…" Andy said absently, then looked down at his four companions on the floor. "I promise I'll save _you_ this time." He said quietly. He solidified it in his mind; he would give whatever it took to get these four strangers to safety, even if that meant his life. They were his new family now, and he sure as hell wasn't going to let down his old family. Not again. He clenched his fist and then looked out the window with a new determination and a hardened resolve.

Sorry about the really short chapter, but I just wanted to give a little back story on our newest character. I wanted to give you a glimpse at what happened to him without going full flashback mode. Let me know what you think! Reviews are bread and butter to new writers like me. :D


	6. First Aid Chapter 6: Going Shopping

**Author's Note: **I was just looking at my story traffic and wanted to give a shout out to my readers in Vietnam and Singapore! I have nothing against my other readers but I find it incredible that my lil' old story is reaching so far! :D Also, I had to spend about an hour searching for the correct praying dialogue, but there you have it! Anything for my readers. Left 4 Dead 2 and its characters are the property of Valve. Now enjoy!

First Aid Chapter 6: Going Shopping

"Alright, everybody gather 'round. Let's pray." Coach said as he kneeled in the saferoom at the entrance of the mall. Nick rolled his eyes and Andy snorted, but Ellis eagerly kneeled and clasped his hands in prayer. "Dear Lord, see us safely through our time of trial in this mall; and please, Lord? Let the food court be okay. Amen."

"Amin, bruthur." Ellis said as he stood up again. The five gathered their weapons and Ellis kicked open the saferoom door, alerting all the zombies in the vicinity with its distinctive bang. They charged the group, only to be quickly dismembered or torn apart by the survivors' bullets. The group made their way to the escalator, and quickly ascended, making sure to clear it of the few zombies there were.

"You know, I could use a new shirt." Andy said, looking down at the dried blood evident on his white tee shirt. He quickly ran into the door of a store on their left, emerging again with a new shirt on. "Damn clerk. She tried to eat my brains!" He said spreading his arms wide, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Wow. I don't think there are gonna be many zombies this time around." Rochelle said optimistically.

"Come on. Don't jinx us." Nick said, giving her a potent look as the group ducked under a broken barrier.

-{()}-

"I have a weird feeling that this has happened before!" Andy yelled as he blew a zombies brain matter out of its head with his shotgun. The five had made it all the way to the second floor and to an alarmed window, and the only way out was to break the window and alerted a massive horde. The group was at the foot of the escalator to the third floor, but was surrounded by rabid zombies eager for their flesh.

"Oh shit! Fat guy!" Coach yelled, beating an obese zombie with the butt of his shotgun. Nick made the mistake of shooting it, and it exploded, covering the group with organs and bodily fluids. This seemed to attract even more zombies, and soon the group was about to be overwhelmed. Andy was blasting the legs off of the zombies with his shotgun while wiping the puke off of him. Rochelle was trying to make room by dismembering the zombies with a katana she had found.

"Die!" She yelled, sending zombie pieces flying. Nick was preoccupied with keeping the zombies off of Rochelle's back, nailing them with his rugged AK-47. Just as a particularly eager zombie punched him in the chest, its own was promptly turned into Swiss cheese by Nick's rifle. Ellis was having the time of his life, hooting and hollering at the top of his lungs in exhilaration. The zombies were finally done, with Coach punching the last in the face then quickly blowing its upper half off, gore trailing after it as it fell from the railing.

"I would've gone for something less dramatic, but hey; to each their own." Andy said smirking. Coach gave hum that fatherly look and then chuckled. The group limped up the broken down escalator, having taken quite a beating. Finally, the room holding the security controls came into sight—along with the hulking form of a tank.

"Looks like some kinda—supah-ass zombeh!" Coach yelled, immediately unloading his shotgun to it. The huge zombie merely roared in anger and charged towards them with a new fervor.

"Light that mother up!" Ellis yelled as he fired grenade after grenade at the massive zombie. No matter how much they shot it, the zombie never seemed to go down. Soon, the only one with any ammo was Andy, and he quickly tossed Coach his M1014 shotgun as he sprinted away from the tank as it zeroed in on him. He expertly threw his M9 pistol to Nick, and so there were three of the group firing at the beast. The tank was nearing Andy by the second, and without warning shot out its massive arm, sending him flying all the way down the escalator he had been standing near. He lay there, still, as the other four finally brought the gargantuan zombie down. Rochelle and Nick ran to turn off the alarm as Ellis and Coach ran to check up on Andy. They found him lying on the ground with his arm sticking out at a painful angle. Andy eyes fluttered open, and they heaved a sigh of relief.

"Goddamnit!" He yelled out in pain, looking down at his clearly dislocated arm. "Hey, Coach, think you can help me out?" He said through gritted teeth, then pulled out a strip of thick cloth from his jacket with his good arm. Coach nodded grimly and Andy put the cloth in his mouth.

"On the count a' three." Coach said, readying himself to relocate the limb. "One…Two-" And then he snapped the arm back into place cleanly. Andy yelled out in pain, the sound muffled by the cloth. He sat up and gingerly moved his arm.

"Well all right then." He said as he flexed his fingers. "Did either of you see where the hell my gun went?" Both of them shook their heads. "Shit." He reached into his leather jacket and extracted his long combat knife, holding it ready in his good hand. He then made his way with the others to the security controls. Everything was in order, and Nick was just cleaning up shop. The five scoured the room for supplies, finding Andy a .45 M1911 pistol as well as a bottle of pain pills. Andy took the shirt from one of the bodies on the ground and started ripping it into a long, thick strip. He made a sling for his arm out of it, and then they left through the exit.

As the descended the several floors of steps, they came across several torn up bodies, every single one looking like it had been through a deli slicer. As they made their way into the large room under construction near the stairs, an unmistakable crying could be heard.

"Hey, Ro. That ain't you, is it girl?" Coach asked Rochelle, and she shook her head, a worried look on her face.

"Hello? Can ya hear me? We came ta rescue ya!" Ellis shouted, but suddenly had his mouth covered by Andy's hand.

"Don't. Yell. Don't talk. Anyone." Andy whispered to the group, all of them looking back at him in astonishment. As if reading their minds he continued. "I've seen this before. A female zombie that sits and cries. Looks almost exactly like a human; only thing is, she's got claws longer than my combat knife." They all looked at him in horror and Nick's mouth dropped open. "If you get to close, she'll get you and turn you into mince meat. Literally. So turn your lights off and follow me _exactly_." He silently made his way to a pillar in the room, and the five saw what he had told them; what looked like a young woman crying in the middle of the room, islands of hunks of flesh scattered in a river of blood. Rochelle gasped. Suddenly, the thing turned toward her, growling slightly. It continued to get more agitated as they tried to sneak around it, until finally it let out a hideous scream, and sprinted at Rochelle, its ten inch-long claws outstretched. Rochelle immediately ran up the nearby escalator out of sight, the zombie hot on her tail.

"Hey! What are you guys standing around for? I don't want this to be a party of four!" Nick yelled at them as he ran after the zombie, and a distant witch-like cackling could be heard. The other three quickly looked at the overrun evac center to their right, then ran after the others. When Ellis, Coach, and Andy got up the stairs, they saw the zombie fall to its knees, emitting a horrible death-screech. They ran towards it and saw Nick turning over Rochelle, who was covered in blood, rip marks evident on the back of her shirt. Andy quickly kneeled to check her for a pulse. It was very faint, but still there. He looked at the wounds, and he sighed with relief. He had practice with this sort of wound.

"Alright. I need scissors, tape, bandages and metal wire." He said standing up, blood on his hands. They all gave him an odd look. "Hey! Shit-heads! She needs first aid! Now go!" He thundered at the other three, who immediately scattered, searching the nearby shops for the supplies.

**Author's Note: **I am excited to say I have a new idea to give the survivors the edge over those pesky zombies. I just want to know what kind of next-generation assault rifle there should be. If you have ideas, review! If not, review anyways! I love to hear what you have to say. Until next time, The Amazing Soup.


	7. First Aid Chapter 7: My Preciousss

**Author's Note:** Bleh. Sorry it took me this long, but I've been very busy and just barely got to snag my computer before I went on vacation. ^_^ I looked over the rest of the story, and saw how pitifully short the chapters are. So I resolved to try to get at least 2,000 words a chapter from now on, and hopefully I can still have a goof update schedule. Now, enough babble; enjoy!

Left 4 Dead 2 and its characters are the property of Valve.

First Aid Chapter 7: My preciousss

Everyone was running through the stores, looking for the equipment to keep Rochelle alive, as Andy continually barked at them for more supplies, while slowly dragging Rochelle to the tantalizingly close saferoom. He looked up and saw Ellis running into an office supply store while blasting the zombies in his way.

"Hey, Ellis! Grab me some superglue, will you?" Andy shouted, dragging the large cloth that Nick had gotten for him as a means of transporting the unconscious woman. She wasn't doing well. Fortunately, the wounds on her back were fairly shallow, and the zombie hadn't delivered a killing blow. The skin was torn, though, and wound didn't seem to cease bleeding. Coach approached, handing Andy the bandages that he had asked for, torn from sheets from a bedding store. Suddenly, the characteristic groans and screams of an approaching horde could be heard. Coach readied his shotgun, and Ellis and Nick quickly arrived on the scene. "Hey, Nick! Can you get her to the saferoom? We'll cover you!" Andy said as he handed Nick the sheet with Rochelle unconscious upon it.

"Yeah." Nick practically leaped at the opportunity, and began dragging her as tenderly as he could. Andy pulled out his M1911 pistol, holding it in his right hand as he winced, his arm sill ginger from being dislocated. He supported it with his good arm, and took aim as a huge wave of zombies neared the group.

"Yeahheheah!" Ellis yelled as he shot down a zombie with Nick's M9, sending its jaw flying into the crowd, trailed by a tail of gore. Coach shot two rounds from the M1014 shotgun, blowing off a female zombie's arm, and blowing another's organs out its back. The three very gradually continued to lose their ground, trying to keep all the zombies away from Nick and Rochelle, who inched closer to the saferoom. Andy quickly shot the legs off of a zombie running for Nick, then finished it with a shot to the head, spreading its brain matter all over the ground. The wave seemed to thin, but a distinctive growling could be heard, then a high-pitched screeching. A hooded zombie on all fours crept its way along the edge of the carnage, its hooded face angled towards Rochelle.

"Not this ugly motherfucker again!" Andy yelled, running towards the zombie. It let out a scream and leapt for the vulnerable woman, but Andy tackled it in mid-air, then held it by the neck and put three bullets in its skull. For each one he named a friend who died by this beasts hand. "That was for Greg. And Stephen! And Angela you filthy bastard!" He yelled, then spat on its corpse and returned to the line. Coach eyed him curiously while shooting out a zombies throat. Then he shrugged and went back to business.

"Alright! Move, move, move!" Andy yelled as he turned and grabbed the other end of the sheet that supported Rochelle. He held it with one hand, and motioned for the other two to follow him, as he and Nick ran into the saferoom, the unconscious Rochelle between them.

"Charguh!" Coach yelled, identifying one of the large, one-armed zombies.

"Charger? I dun see no charger, only one a' them big ol'—Oh! I see watcha did there." Ellis said to Coach as he slayed the zombie, then winked. "Heh. Yeah. I wudn't all that great in school when we had ta'-"

"Ellis, come on!" Nick yelled from inside the saferoom, covering the boy as he made his way to safety. As soon as the five were in the saferoom, Ellis and Coach rushed to blockade the door.

"That was _way _too close, y'all." Coach said as he panted, doubled over in exhaustion. He made his way over to the sheet where Andy had resumed his work on Rochelle, who he could have sworn was dead if it weren't for the very faint expanding of her chest as she breathed. "Ah, Ro." He said, shaking hishead in sadness.

"What? You're acting like she's already dead." Andy said, not even looking up from his work. He had turned her on her side, and was cutting open the back of her shirt.

"Now wait just a minute!" Nick said, taking a step towards Andy. He wasn't the most honorable man, but there was a line that you shouldn't cross.

"Relax. I have to do this to access the wound better. Jesus. I never took you as a possessive one, Nick, but I guess you learn something every day." Andy deadpanned towards the end, getting a giggle from Ellis and a terse frown and glare from Nick. The minutes seemed to stretch into hours for Nick, until he was sure that they must have been in the saferoom for days. Every time he looked at Rochelle, lying still on the sheet, blood sprinkled across her face, he couldn't help but wonder, _What the hell are you thinking?_

_You know just what you're thinking. You're going soft. And for what? Some random chick you met a few hours ago?_ Nick thought to himself. The logical side of him butted in._ It's because she's vulnerable; the very model of a damsel in distress. It's just me jumping to meaningless conclusions._ As the storm raged around in his head, Ellis was gawking at a poster on the wall. Coach walked up to him, getting a look at what he was staring at.

"Jimmeh Geebs!" Coach yelled, staertling everyone in the room. Nick rolled his eyes.

"So who the hell is this Jimmy Gibbs Jr. guy?" Nick asked, looking at the all-too-familiar poster. "I'm getting tired of seeing this guys face." Nick remarked with a grimace.

"Only the most famous stock car racer ever!" Ellis remarked, rolling his eyes and smiling, as if explaining addition to sixth graders.

"'Round these parts, he's as famous as…" Coach pondered, looking for an appropriate figure. "Elvis. Or the President."

"Really? 'Cause he looks like an asshole." Nick said dryly. Coach glared at him, the gesture being perfectly mimicked by Ellis.

"I don't think I like your tone, mister." Coach said, his voice sinisterly quiet. The heated tension was finally broken by Andy, who looked up from his work, then stood up and wiped his hands off on his pants. The others looked at him eagerly, waiting for an answer.

"She'll live." He said simply, then re-examined the bandages he had applied, and finally moved himself over to the table in the room, stocking up on ammo. The three breathed a sigh of relief, then went about their business.

"So, kid. You never told me your story." Nick said as he walked up to Andy, folding his arms. Andy was filling an empty magazine for an assault rifle he found. The methodical click of him pushing bullets into the mag gave a hypnotizing rhythm to what he said.

"No story." He said simply, slipping another pointed bullet into the clip.

"Aw, come on. Don't give me that crap. You told us you watched your friends die. I want to hear about it." Nick said, annoyed by his lack of forthcoming. At the word 'friends', Andy looked up, the look on his face deadly serious.

"There's no story." He said sternly, his mouth forming a tight white line.

"There has to be somethi-" Nick was cut off by Andy standing abruptly and pushing him against the wall.

"I said there's no fucking story, okay!" He yelled, his forearm at Nick's throat. He looked into Nick's eyes, then his grip slackened and he shied away from everyone, sitting in the farthest corner sharpening his knife. Coach walked up to Nick and gave him a disapproving frown.

"Look, Nick. The kid's obviously been through a lot. Just leave 'im be, ahright?" Coach said quietly, his hand on Nick's shoulder. Nick nodded, and then Coach went about his business.

The room lapsed into a comfortable silence, the only noise the scraping of Andy's knife against its sharpener. Then there was a rustling, and a slight sigh.

"So, what'd I miss?" Rochelle said weakly, her eyes hooded by their lids. Everyone rushed over except for Andy, who was too lost in his thoughts to notice her speaking.

"Hey, girl, take it easy." Coach said, helping her into a sitting position.

"How bad is it?" Rochelle asked with a pained groan.

"That ain't nothin'. Y'all can walk it off." Coach said with a grin. Ellis and Nick were grinning as well, but Andy had showed no response, unaware of the happenings around him. Rochelle tried to stand up, but was held down by the three gentlemen. They all shook their heads, signs that she shouldn't try to stand just yet.

"Have any back pain?" Andy asked from the corner, not even looking up.

"What do you think?" Rochelle asked sarcastically. Andy rolled his eyes.

"Not _that _kind of back pain. I want to know if that bitch got to your spinal cord. Well?" Andy asked clinically. Rochelle stretched her back slowly, making sure to not stress herself too much.

"It seems alright." She said optimistically. "I even think I can get up."

"Don't try it. You need to take it easy for a while. One of us can support you while we get out of this hellhole." Andy said as he stood up himself. "Speaking of which, does anyone have an idea on how to get out of here? That CEDA evac station was a bust, so we need a new way out." Andy said, gathering his weapons and ammo.

"Well I bin thinking. So I bin thinking, n' I thought Jimmy Geebs' stock car must be 'round here somewhere. We just gotta find it, gas it up, and I'll drive that thang ta New Orleans mah damn self!" Ellis exclaimed proudly. "Alright I'm guessin' the gas tanks prolly gonna be empty, so we'll have to find some scattered around." Ellis added thoughtfully.

"Sounds like a plan. Only I'm driving." Nick added.

"Heh, not unless I get killed. Otherwise you'll have ta kill me." Ellis stated confidently. Nick rolled his eyes, and went to grab a weapon from the table. When he picked it up, Andy gasped.

"Let me see that!" He demanded urgently. Nick handed over the gun with curious look on his face. "I don't believe it." Andy whispered. He turned the long-barreled sniper rifle over in his hands. "An M107 Barrett .50 cal. I hope you don't mind, Nick, but I don't think you can handle this much gun." He said snarkily. Nick snorted and picked up and M16A2 from the table. He then moved over to Rochelle's side and put his arm around her waist, surprising her.

"It's not what you think. I volunteer to help Rochelle on the way." Nick said to the group. "Despite how much I know you want me, this isn't about your feelings." Nick added to Rochelle with a smirk. She frowned at him and reluctantly put her arm around his neck, so he was supporting her on one side.

"Alright, y'all, let's move out!" Coach yelled, kicking open the saferoom door, only to be greeted by a mob of zombies.

**Author's Note: **Yes, I know, slightly below 2,000 words. I was just trying to give you guys a clean break in between sections of the game. This is that edge I was talking about. Huge guns for major collateral damage. But the Barrett isn't the only one. You'll see. ;D Also, Dead Center is winding down, and I want to know if you want me to put in The Passing. Just leave a review, and until next time, The Amazing Soup.


	8. First Aid Chapter 8: Skeletons In the Cl

**Author's Note: **Sorry it's taken me so long, but I've been trying to play more of Mass Effect 2. It's a great game, and I was thinking about starting a fic of it. Enough fiendish planning, I need your opinions! To do the Passing or not? Submit a review telling me what you want/think. I would greatly appreciate it. ^_^ Now, enough drabble!

Left 4 Dead 2 and its characters are the property of Valve.

First Aid Chapter 8: Skeletons In the Closet

The five were just out of the saferoom door, in the beginning of a long, narrow hallway, and already the infected wanted a piece of them. The five had formed a jagged line, with Rochelle and Nick farther in the back, while Ellis, Coach, and Andy were tearing up the zombies from the front.

"Bring it on, baby!" Andy yelled, firing off the first round from his M107. The recoil knocked him on his butt, much to Nick's amusement. Nick laughed obnoxiously, but faltered when he saw the damage it had wrought. Six or seven zombies in a row had been reduced to a large, bloody mess, the remaining parts of their torsos far too small to be called pieces. Andy shot Nick a complacent smirk, and Nick just picked his jaw up off the ground.

"No need to waste this baby." Andy said as he switched to his M1911 pistol. The five quickly demolished the remaining horde, and was about to head out, when a menagerie of grotesque groaning and cackling could be heard.

"Careful; I hear one a' them back-humpers around." Ellis remarked. Nick immediately identified the source of the other noise.

"One-arm, coming at us!" He yelled, then pointed at the zombie that clambered out of the women's restroom. The beast let out a loud grunt, then a ferocious mooing noise as it charged incredibly quickly into the group, grabbing Ellis and sending the others flying.

"Hogwash!" Ellis yelled as the beast slammed him into the wall, as this was the second time this had happened in hours. The other four quickly picked themselves up and killed the charger, only for the small, gremlin-like zombie to leap onto Coach's back, and he yelled out in pain and surprise. "That ain't right, man!" Ellis yelled as he pried the jockey off Coach's back, finishing it with his newly acquired MSG-90 sniper rifle. Rochelle emitted a pained groan from where she was being helped off the ground by Nick.

"You okay, Ro?" Coach asked, concerned.

"I am too young to be feeling this old." She joked, and everyone chuckled nervously. An awkward silence settled in, but then the group started moving down the hall, passing the bathrooms.

"I don't know if anyone else was wondering, but why did that muscular man-zombie come out of the women's bathroom?" Andy asked quizzically. The group immediately stopped and looked from one to the other. Then they burst out laughing at the comment.

"Who knows? Maybe he had _business_ to _attend to_ in there." Nick said suggestively, waggling his eyebrows. The laughter immediately stopped. "Aw, come on!" Nick yelled.

-{()}-

Ellis quickly scrambled to the elevator, attempting to hit a zombie in the face with the butt of his gun, but missed, ending up losing his gun in the process. Just as he was making it inside the elevator, a screaming could be heard behind him. A tongue quickly wrapped itself around him, impeding his progress.

"Ah, what the hell!" He yelled, then screamed in fear as two more infected grabbed his arm. Coach revved his chainsaw and cut through them, splattering blood and gore over everyone in the elevator. The doors closed, and Ellis collapsed to the ground, the tongue still around him. His eyes widened when he saw what was waiting for the group at the bottom of the elevator. "Hooooollllleeee shiuht." Ellis said ominously, indicating the massive number of zombies in the atrium; there had to be hundreds.

Coach lent Ellis a hand, then picked him up with a grunt. Rochelle handed him a M-320 grenade launcher, and a quirk of the eyebrow.

"That was certainly dramatic. You could almost slap on a cheesy montage and a title, and then BOOM! Movie." Andy said from his corner of the elevator, checking his pockets for ammo. "Damn, these bullets are huge. Look." He told the group, pulling out one of the gargantuan .50 caliber bullets, each almost as long as a pencil, and three times as thick. He quickly replaced the half-full clip in his M107, then rubbed his nose.

The group tensed each time they heard the beep of the elevator moving down a floor; there was a hard fight ahead, not to mention trying to finding a shit-ton of gas cans.

"Ready?" Nick asked, aiming his gun at the door as the number in the wall of the elevator flashed to one. The other four nodded gravely, and Rochelle began leaning on Nick again. If she leaned a little too much, he didn't mind.

The doors of the elevator opened with a 'bing', then a wave of zombies in front of them turned to look at them before they quickly charged, screaming and groaning. Andy took a shot, scaring the shit out of Rochelle. The bullet eviscerated a zombie, and cut another into three pieces; two halves of the torso and legs. As the others opened fire on the infected, the noise drew countless other infected to them, forming a huge wave of flailing limbs and screaming voices that threatened to destroy them. Coach had stopped aiming his SPAS-12, instead choosing to spray buckshot into the crow, sending clumps of zombies to their appropriate graves in various forms of dismemberment. Nick was trying to hip fire his SCAR-H assault rifle, but found it very difficult with Rochelle leaning on him.

"Hey, sweetheart, mind if I put you down for a second?" Nick asked sarcastically as he lowered her to the floor. She leaned against the back of the elevator, taking potshots at the zombies that got too close to any of them. Everyone was fiercely determined, and no one tried to speak over the roars and screams of infected, save the occasional "reloading".

Finally, the horde was demolished when Coach pulled out his chainsaw and tore a zombie in half with it, shredding his way through the rest.

"Yeah! Grr!" He yelled in excitement as he literally ripped the horde to pieces. When the five had finished, a waist-high mound of bodies and limbs blocked the elevator. Andy shrugged, shaking the blood out of his eyebrow-length blonde hair that slanted to the right. He then grunted with exertion as he vaulted over the bodies.

"You're shitting me, right?" Nick asked incredulous. "How the fuck am I supposed to get over this?" Nick demanded angrily, motioning at his pristine white suit.

"Nick, you picked a bad day to wear yo' white suit." Coach commented, smiling. Andy disappeared from sight, but no one noticed until he returned a few seconds later with a shovel. He tossed the shovel to Nick, then began wiping the dried blood and intestines off of his black leather jacket.

By the time Nick and Ellis finished shoveling through the bodies, Andy and Coach had located two three-gallon gas cans that were filled with gas inside a supply closet. As the other three of the group extricated themselves from the bloody mess, Andy and Coach found Jimmy Gibbs Jr's stock car, and began filling up the tank.

"So I figyuh we'll have to get 'bout eight of these gas cans to get anywhere we want to." Coach commented thoughtfully.

"So then just six more to go." Andy said as the others arrived. After telling them how many gas cans were needed, Andy and Coach paired up to search for gas cans. That left Nick, Rochelle, and Ellis to form another group. The two groups split up, heading to opposite ends of the atrium.

As Andy and Coach climbed the stairs to the third level of the atrium, both were contentedly silent until Andy broke the monotony.

"So what about you, Coach? Any family you hoping to see once we finally get rescued?" Andy asked, trying to make small talk.

"Yeah. I got a young'un of my own. She's about your age; she'll turn eighteen in august." Coach announced, his voice full of pride. "That is, if she ever makes it that long. I don' know about all this zombie shit. I mean, I know we're immune, but what happens if lil' Sophia's not?" Coach asked rhetorically, his countenance turning downcast.

"Welcome to my life." Andy muttered darkly, his hair momentarily covering his blue eyes.

"How 'bout you? Y'all ain't from around here, I take it. That means you gotta have some'un waitin for you back home, right?" Coach asked, trying to be optimistic.

"I doubt it." Andy said simply. "All my friends are dead. They died before my own eyes. They all died to save me. Why did they do that?" Andy suddenly stopped walking up the stairs, being almost at the third floor. He looked up to Coach, the question still hanging in the air. Coach returned the look, sympathy etched on his features.

"Look, son, I… I mean to say that… You know what? It's because they were your friends. They were willing to die for you, so y'all don't need to keep all that sadness shit pent up, 'cause they wanted you to live and you doin' what they wanted y'all to do." Coach said earnestly after fumbling for his words.

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess you're right." Andy said, his voice trailing off as he looked down at the ground. The two continued their search for gas cans, but found something much more sinister lying in wait at the end of the hallway.

"I love malls. I do. This one time I was in this mall down in Atlanta with my friend Dave, and there was guys, that was dancin' fer like money and stuff, and my friend Dave was all lik-"

"Ellis; is now the best time?" Nick interrupted yet another of Ellis' long-winded stories involving friends and idiocy. Ellis stopped on cue, and Nick continued to pour the fifth can of gas into the getaway car. "Just three more!" He yelled up to Coach and Andy, who were making their way up to the third floor.

Suddenly, Coach and Andy started yelling, running back towards the stairs as massive growling and roaring could be heard from behind them.

"Tank! Take that fucker down!" Andy was yelling as he tried to line up a shot on the run. The two were running from one of the gargantuan gorilla-like zombies, and it was closing in on them as they sprinted down the steps of the stairs.

"Hurry, y'all! Catch!" Coach yelled as he threw gas cans down to Nick and Ellis, then finally one to Rochelle.

Just as the two were nearing the steps down from the second floor, the tank lifted its mighty arm and slammed it into the two, sending them flying in different directions. Coach was the lucky one, landing on his butt on top of one of the information kiosks on the first floor. Andy, however, was knocked down into the car, and he smacked his head against the door window, splashing blood onto the glass. He slumped to the ground with a whimper, blood running down the side of his face.

"Light that mother up!" Ellis yelled as he fired grenades at the beast. Each survivor was taking their shots, and Coach had an excellent vantage point. Chunks of flesh were coming off of it like sweat, then it ripped up a slab of ground and hurled it at Rochelle, who was knocked to the ground by nick just in time. The tank fell, but the noise had alerted all sorts of zombies.

"I knew I shoulda lost some weight!" Coach said as they sprinted towards the car. They haphazardly filled the gas tank, and threw the cans out of the way. Ellis jumped into the drivers seat as Rochelle, Nick, and Coach dragged Andy with them into the back section of the car.

"Goddamnit, this is getting good!" Yelled Nick from shotgun as Ellis mowed down zombies, finally breaking through the entrance to the mall, quickly navigating his way to the highway.

"Here we come, New Orleans!" Coach yelled in excitement from the cramped quarters of the back of the car. The five drove on the freeway until Savannah, Georgia was just a little speck in the afternoon horizon.

**Author's Note:** Alright! Dead Center is complete! So what did you think? Good, bad, meh? Review! I need these reviews to crank out chapters. Did you get my little allusion to the L4D2 trailer? ;D I so devious. I got the "HOGWASH!" idea from Criken on youtube. (He's great. Check out his videos.) Also, I decided to add the Passing as the next chapter, and I might even sneak in a little more romance, and even a little love triangle. As Nick said, Goddamnit, this is getting good. Until next time, The Amazing Soup.


	9. First Aid Chapter 9: Triangles

**Author's Note: **Sorry it's been taking this long, I just want to approach these next couple of chapters from the right angle, so I've been trying to take my time. Also my internet has been temperamental, to say the least. :/ Anywho, I'll try to keep up with demand as much as possible, and try to keep a good thing going. I will be on vacation for most of the next two weeks, so bear with me in the update schedule. Now on to the story!

Left 4 Dead 2 and its characters are property of Valve.

First Aid Chapter 9: Triangles

Ellis was one hell of a driver. That was apparent to all in the car save Andy, for he was still unconscious from his collision with the same vehicle. The car raced over the road, swerving at the last moment to avoid other cars and obstacles, or to run over the occasional zombie.

Rochelle was gripping her seat in the back out of panic, fearing Ellis' driving far more than the zombies she would face while walking. Nick was absentmindedly looking out the passenger seat window, swearing every time Ellis would swerve.

"Holy shit! You have got to be the worst driver in history, overalls." Nick yelled, pissed off when his face collided with the window for the umpteenth time.

Nick had begun calling Ellis overalls, much to Ellis' indifference, after Nick had realized that what he once thought were jeans around Ellis' legs were actually just overalls that hadn't been buttoned over. This revelation had been little to the surprise of Coach and Rochelle, who had seen this manner of garb elsewhere in Savannah.

"How's the kid doing back there?" Nick asked, leaning around his seat to get a good look at Andy, who hadn't recovered from his unconsciousness after the tank attack. Coach shrugged, unsure of what to say. Nick ran the boy over with his eyes. "I dunno. I think he's gonna be alright, but we'll see." Nick finally concluded, turning back to the road ahead.

The environment around the getaway vehicle had long since changed from urban to a series of plains, the occasional settlement burnt or burning, a testament to the dark times the five survivors were in.

"Where do you think we'll go when we get evacuated by the military?" Rochelle asked, taking in the bleak surroundings and the setting sun. The expression on her face was unreadable, bordering on sadness.

"I dunno. I think they were gon' send us out west to Californya. I heard somethin' bout a safehaven there or somethin'." Coach commented vaguely, waving his hand through the air.

"Really? 'Cuz I heard from my friend Keith that they were gonna send us ta some island er somethin', like Hawaii. I mean it makes sinse raght? 'Cuz there wouldn't be no way fer tha zombies ta get there, seein' as it's surrounded by water and stuff." Ellis commented, totally taking his eyes off of the road as he leaned around his seat to respond to Coach. Rochelle opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out and her eyes became wide as saucers when she realized that the person driving was paying no attention to what he was doing.

Coach looked at her face, puzzled, then looked at Ellis and the response was almost comedic; his jaw dropped and he pointed at the road, not saying a thing. Nick was clueless, until he looked over at Ellis, who looked back at him, his head tilted to the side with a frown on his face. Nick looked back at the road, noticing the car starting to swerve to the side. Ellis' head snapped back forward to the road and he hastily grabbed the wheel, swiftly righting the car and jumbling its passengers. Andy was now in the foot space below the back seats, with Coach tangled underneath Rochelle, who was now facing the back of the car.

A muffled groan issued from beneath Coach, the noise too garbled to hear properly. Coach sat up abruptly, flinging Rochelle back into her seat, only kneeling and facing the wrong direction. A less muffled phrase escaped from beneath Coach.

"Ur skshig mmh." Andy's arm began grasping the air beside Coach, evidence that he was trapped underneath the large man, and needed air. Coach quickly moved to the farthest seat to the right, freeing Andy, who sat up and gasped for air. After catching his breath, he swore and his face contorted in pain.

"You alright, young'un? How ya feel?"

"Like a fifth of tequila and an asskicking, to be honest." He informed Coach's worried face. He twisted his neck far to the left, eliciting a loud cracking noise. "Nothing that can't be fixed with a little R&R, though." He took a pause and looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings, confused. "Where are we?" He asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose to ease out the pain forming behind his forehead.

"The stock car. Ellis' crazy plan actually worked." Nick said, at which let loose a complacent chuckle.

"I told y'all I could do it. After all, this car kin work _miracles._" Ellis said, a cocky grin on his face as he looked back at the other three again.

"Ellis! The road!" Nick, Rochelle, and Coach all yelled at him in unison, and his attention diverted back to the road, with all three breathing a loud sigh of relief.

"Damn it!" Andy swore loudly. The others looked at him, concerned, and he elaborated. "We forgot the guns." He said sheepishly, a nervous grin creeping up on his face. The rest swatted away his concerns with the wave of their hands.

The car lapsed into silence save for the running of the engine, and all five watched the sun set in the crazy world they called home. The environment outside of the car gradually changed into a sparse collection of isolated freeway stops, a crumbling road sign telling them that they were mere miles away from a city. The five looked at each other nervously; they couldn't stop until they got to New Orleans, promising to be the end of their journey.

As the sun's last red rays wilted into darkness, clouds formed and rain began to sprinkle down. The car soon entered an urban city, with signs that boasted the Midnight Riders tour that was recently there. Ellis quickly navigated the side streets, only to reach a raised bridge; the only passage to New Orleans.

"Shit. Looks like we gonna hafta find a way 'round that bridge." Coach commented, exiting the car as it stopped. The other four followed suit, and quickly ran out of ideas on how to get around the bridge.

A young woman dressed in a pink jacket walked out onto the platform to the side of the bridge, clearly relieved to see survivors. Rochelle jumped at the chance to get suggestions from her as to lower the bridge, but Ellis and Andy were already eagerly conversing with her; or at least were trying to.

"Hey, do you-" Ellis began, but quickly lost his voice, mumbling to Andy. "Huh, oh God, I'm too nervous to talk to her, man." Andy was quick on the uptake, however, and managed to form a sentence.

"Do you think you could help us lower the bridge?" He asked calmly, but trying to not stumble over his words. After all, Ellis was right; she was very attractive.

"No, we've already lost someone and-" She stopped for a moment, trying not to lose herself to her sadness.

"I'm sorry. I can only imagine what that's like." Andy sympathized.

"Thank you. I—like I was saying, you can take the under-the-river tour to get to the generator, and then we can cover you as you refill it." She said, sorry that she couldn't be of more help.

"Thanks. I think we'll do that. See you on the other side." He said, and as she walked away, he could hardly help himself from following her with his gaze. Nick took this as an opportunity to poke a little fun at the group's youngest member.

"So, Andy. She looks like a nice kid. Eh?" He said jokingly, nudging Andy on the arm and waggling his eyebrows.

"Yeah…" Andy said, his gaze still where she had been last. Nick laughed, and Andy subsequently cleared his throat, then announced the plan to the others. "Alright, so we just have to find this tour a couple streets down, and make our way under the bridge. After that, we activate the generator, and I get her to come wit-" He caught himself abruptly, then continued. "Ahem; _we_ drive, uhm, out of here. Yeah." He said this last part nervously, tucking at his collar. The others nodded, and proceeded to scavenge for better weapons.

All that could be found were an aluminum baseball bat for Coach, a Desert Eagle for Nick, and a Glock 9 pistol for Rochelle. Andy still had his combat knife, his M1911 pistol, and who-knows-what-else, and Ellis still had his M320 grenade launcher.

The five worked their way through a small recreational park, navigating through benches, broken down vehicles, and massive hordes of zombies. The group reached the end of the strip of park, and bolted for the close store fronts, seeking refuge from rain and zombie alike. Inside of a small convenience store, the survivors found a Mossberg 500 and an Uzi next to an apparently well-prepared body, which had supplies covering what was left of its mangled corpse. Andy leaned down and took a long belt of bullets off of the body, looping them over his shoulder.

"You kiddin' me, right?" Coach asked, looking from the belt of bullets to Andy's pistol. Andy merely shrugged.

"What? You never know when they could come in handy."

As the group moved to the back of the store, a loud coughing could be heard from behind the door. Nick moved towards the door as the other four looked at each other nervously. Several shots rang out as Nick shot his Uzi at the door, to hear a satisfying death gasp from the infected. He opened the door, which now lead to a thick cloud of smoke, which he motioned to.

"After you, ladies." He said mockingly, then let everyone but Andy pass, whom he fell into stride with. "So. I see you finally found yourself someone special, hmm?" He drew out the last syllable to get across his point. Andy went along with the act.

"Oh, yeah. I'm not even going to ask her out on a date. I'm just going to ask her to marry me." Andy said as he rolled his eyes, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Tha's a great idea! I cain't believe I dunt think of it before!" Ellis exclaimed at Nick's remark, smacking his forehead in revelation.

"It was a joke, Ellis." Nick said, rubbing the bridge of his nose at Ellis' stupidity.

"Anyway, I saw her first." Andy added, giving Ellis a pat on the back. Ellis looked at him, his eyes narrowed.

"Are you sayin' that you lahk her too?" Ellis questioned, his voice deadly serious. Andy responded to the challenge, closing the space between them until there were only inches between their faces.

"Yeah. And I'm saying she's not going to fall for _you._" Andy added, a dark smirk playing across his face.

"Well, alraght. Looks like we'll have to let her decide. May the best man win." Ellis said, holding out his hand. Andy grasped it tightly and shook it, sealing the deal.

"You got it, fella." Andy returned, then bolted up the stairs as Nick let loose an impatient, annoyed grunt.

"Are you coming, or are you going to see which one comes out _on top?_" Nick said, his face splitting into an evil grin. Coach looked at him disgustedly.

"There is somethin' wrong with you, boy."

With that, the party went up the stairs, and proceeded down the hallway, looking in each room. Andy opened the door on the end, revealing an untidy office with its lamented occupant inside, missing his throat.

"Blood, guts; just another day on the job." Andy muttered to himself as he ransacked the room. He opened a military-styled locker, to reveal the biggest gun he had ever seen. He picked it up, an awestruck look on his face. "It's…beautiful." He said, sniffing. "And heavy!" He exclaimed as he hefted the huge machinegun in his arms. He busted down the door back into the hallway, startling the others in the group.

"You know, I'm not _legally _allowed to own a firearm. Just thought I'd let you know that." Andy said darkly to the rest of the group. They all looked at each other in fear.

"Oh, brother…" Nick as he scrubbed his face with his hands.

**Author's Note: **I finally got a chapter done! Go me! On a different tangent, what did you think of the way I handled the boys' reactions to Zoey? I tried to keep to the script, but you know how young men get… :P Anyways, I'll be leaving for camp next week, so don't expect an update until the 13th or so. Review please! Your reviews tell me what you want, and help me get these chapters moving along, so please just click that little button and tell me what you think, mmmmkay? Until next time, The Amazing Soup.


	10. First Ad Chapter 10: Zombies On the Brai

**Author's Note: **Woot! Finally back! Thought I had abandoned you, did you? I would never think of such a thing! :D So here's the next chapter; still in the Passing. Normally I directly follow up each chapter with another continuity wise, but this takes place slightly farther ahead, so hopefully you can understand the scenery. Double-digit time, so DO A BARREL ROLL! :D

Left 4 Dead 2 and its characters are property of Valve. Enjoy!

First Aid Chapter 10: Zombies On the Brain

"Hey, zombies in tuxes. Dat could be you in five minutes, Nick." Coach said jokingly as he gunned the face off of yet another tuxedo-wearing zombie with his AA-12.

"Yeah, yeah. Very funny big guy." Nick replied dryly as he shot off a zombies limbs with his Uzi.

"Boys…" Rochelle said, a warning note in her voice. They group had just exited a small series of buildings, circumventing a road blockaded with cars, and were on their way into what used to be a quaint park.

The survivors reformed a tight formation, Ellis and Andy watching the back while Coach, Rochelle, and Nick forged ahead onto the blood-caked grass. A distinct crying could suddenly be heard as the five neared a gazebo, and it became apparent why all the zombies had been in formal wear.

"That's horrible. Forgotten at her wedding because of the goddamn zombies." Coach said, his face falling.

"Yeah." Rochelle replied quietly, her countenance downcast and forlorn. Andy walked up to Coach and presented the older man his M60.

"Wanna trade?" Andy said mock-cheerfully. Coach nodded and handed the boy his AA-12. Andy swiftly and silently walked right up next to the crying infected. "I'm sorry; they didn't forget you, you know." He said to the witch in a bride's guise, his voice a sad whisper before putting her to peace at muzzle velocity.

The group gathered around the gazebo, shielding themselves from the heavy rain beginning to fall. Fortunately, the zombies seemed to dislike the rain, so the five sat in relative peace under the small roof.

"Jeesus. I swear, this zombie apocalypse shit gets more depressin' by the minute. I cain' believe that woman's damn-bad luck. Havin' her weddin' overrun by zombies, and waitin' by the altar 'til she gets blown away…" Ellis trailed off, leaving the pattering of the rain against the roof the only sound that fell between the group for a few minutes, each person lost in thought. Nick finally broke the silence, his voice soft and quiet.

"We should probably get moving. We'll want a warm place to sleep without zombies, and this sure as hell isn't it."

He was met by nodding heads and mumbled affirmatives as the group began to leave the gazebo. An amalgam of groans and screams greeted their ears as the rain ceased.

"Ready?" Rochelle asked the group, cocking her Mossberg 500 shotgun. A huge wave of zombies swept down the stairs in front of them, all of them yelling and clawing to get at the survivors.

"Firing!" Andy yelled as he held down the trigger of Coach's AA-12, the empty shells making a "fwik" noise as they continually flew out of the side of the shotgun.

"'Til it goes click, baby!" Coach yelled, the machine gun in his hands bucking back against his shoulder as he unloaded into the zombies. Just as the zombies thinned, an outraged roar filled the survivors' ears.

"Cut that motherfucker!" Andy yelled, switching his attention to his shotgun as he loaded another drum clip into it.

"Hey, y'all! Cover me, I'm reloading!" Coach yelled over the commotion as he filled the M60s ammo box with the belt of bullets Andy had found.

"Told you they'd come in handy, Coach!" Andy yelled to him over the roar of gunfire and the frustrated growls of the tank as it neared them. Just as the tank reached arms' distance to the survivors, they split into two groups, Nick, Ellis, and Rochelle running around it to flank from behind it while Coach and Andy proceeded to unload their weapons into it from the front.

Finally, the behemoth fell, growling in its death throes. Andy shook his head, his wet hair spraying water over the ground. Coach merely wiped the grime caked on his forehead with his left glove. The group pushed forward once again, encountering few special infected in the tents they searched, finding Nick a G3 with several magazines.

"Time to pop some melons!" Nick exclaimed excitedly as he picked up the weapon, checking the magazine.

"You know, that sounds disturbing on so many levels, I'll just leave it at that." Andy said snarkly, while Nick glared daggers at him.

"Know what else sounds disturbing? You having a girlfriend in this fucking zombie apocalypse." Nick retorted smugly. Andy spluttered and mumbled, but the survivors moved on nonetheless, forcing him to swallow Nick's weak insult.

(-{[]}-)

"I never thought that would end…" Andy said meekly, his face very pale as he collapsed against a chair in the saferoom, clutching his stomach. Ellis only chuckled.

"Yeah, after tha fourth boomer, I thought _I _wus gonna puke." Ellis said as he closed the door behind himself. Immediately after he said that, Andy leaned over the edge of the chair and retched, garnering the attention of the other four survivors.

"Now that's just _gross._" Rochelle commented, her lip curling at the puddle on the ground. Rochelle's next thought was interrupted by Coach's announcement from near Andy's position hunched over the side of the chair.

"Y'all; I know ya must be hungry, and I'm happy to say I found _pizza!_" Coach exclaimed excitedly as he revealed the box of pizza he retrieved from seemingly nowhere. Nick eyed it suspiciously, then reluctantly took the box from the retired football coach. He opened the box and extricated a slice, folded it over, then dug into it.

"I have to say, Coach; I generally stay away from old pizza from dubious locations, but you have good taste." Nick said with his mouth full as he handed the box to Ellis and then to Rochelle.

"Why don't you save some for the kid? I think he could use some pizza in a while." Rochelle said to Nick, who shrugged, putting the box down next to a large stack of ammunition.

"Yeah, he looks kinda green in tha gills raght now." Ellis commented, still eating his lukewarm pizza.

"Heh, more like 'green all overthaplace'." Coach interjected, laughing. The group of four settled into a comfortable silence as they simultaneously ate and watched over Andy, who was looking much better, but who had fallen asleep.

(-{[]}-)

_The mall was empty, save for Rochelle, who wandered aimlessly through it, wondering how she had gotten there. She walked along the abandoned storefronts, looking into each window, revealing a different memory. In the first pane was her fetching coffee and napkins for everyone at the station, which was buzzing with activity._

_The next showed the same area, only bloody bodies littered the floor, one hand still holding its cup, though the contents were spilled on the gray carpet, mingling with crimson red. No matter how hard she tried, Rochelle couldn't tear her eyes away from the scene, like a horror movie. She saw herself run down the corridor, holding a small handheld video camera, narrating as she scanned the halls, a broken and battered lamp in her other hand. She ran out the door onto the street, chaos unfolding around her as the infected tore into the people, and she looked for an exit. She saw it; a small alley to her right that she could just make it to, climbing through the smashed remnants of a door into the hotel, and sprinted for the stairs. Although this next part she didn't remember; just as she reached the door, a hunter tackled her and she saw her life slip away as the creature mercilessly ripped into her stomach. _

_She tried to back away from the glass, but arms held her shoulders; a voice whispered to her, "It's alright, it's not real." She shook her head. All she could say was "no" very weakly, but the voice repeated itself again. "It's alright, it's not real."_

Suddenly, Rochelle'seyes fluttered open to see large blue eyes staring right back. She almost jumped, if not for the comforting hands on her shoulders.

"It's alright, it's not real." Nick repeated softly, and Rochelle realized that she had been dreaming. As he let go of her arms, Rochelle pushed herself into a more comfortable sitting position, and then sighed heavily.

"This must be some crazy shit for you guys, seeing as you're all having nightmares about it." Nick commented quietly. He now stood by the saferoom door looking outside, and Rochelle stood up and stood next to him.

"Do you think it'll ever be over?"

"Hmm?" Nick realized she was talking to him, then shook himself out of his thoughts. "Yeah. I think it will. Who knows? We could be rescued tomorrow for all I know." Nick added, looking right at Rochelle. She looked back, and words passed between them without either speaking. "I sure hope so." He added quietly, their eyes still locked. The distance between them closed, until they were mere millimeters apart. Just as Rochelle slightly parted her lips, she was interrupted by a loud snore from Ellis, which made them both jump away from each other.

Nick cursed the mechanic under his breath, then straightened his jacket and returned to his post at the door. Rochelle just shuffled awkwardly back to her resting spot, lying down to sleep again. This time her dreams were filled with images of Nick saving her from all the demons of her mind.

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the micro-chapter, but I just got back and I finished at twelve thirty, so I'm pretty tired. Figured I'd just stop here. Also, if anyone was wondering, I try to have a high risk, high reward system with my versions of the characters. If they do something amazing or cool, they get beat up. Just trying to level the playing field. Also, I have to say, I've had dreams about _playing _L4D, so I can certainly see everyone having a few zombies running around in their dreams. Please leave a review, they make my day. Until next time, The Amazing Soup.


	11. First Aid Chapter 11: Shots and Candy

**Author' Note: **No, my dear readers; I have not abandoned you, I swear! Sorry if this chapter is kind of bleh, but I've been really trying to stave off writer's block recently and I've been working on my new story, so bear with me. T_T

Left 4 Dead2 and its characters are property of Valve. I make absolutely no money with this story.

First Aid Chapter 11: Shots and Candy

When Coach woke up for his shift, he noticed Rochelle leaning against a wall in the corner of the saferoom, Nick's coat draped over her like a blanket. The retired football coach just chuckled to himself and traded places with Nick, who had been standing at the door. With a seasoned eye he looked out over the scenery outside the saferoom. They appeared to be in a small alley, with stairs leading up to the main street; it was still raining.

About an hour later, Coach started waking the group from their shallow slumber; no one looked they had slept well. That was understandable, seeing as they were in the middle of their very own hell. Ellis broke the groggy silence.

"Did ah ever tell y'all about the time my friend Keith tried to deep-fry a turkey? Third degree burns over NANTY percent of his body. His doctor had to call in like, other doctors 'cuz he had never seen burns on top of existing burns. And-"

"Ellis, do we really have time for this?" Nick interrupted, yawning.

"Ain't that a load a' shit! You just don't like me! You hate mah guts and all my family's too! You're just an asshole!" Ellis exploded, marching up to Nick and jabbing him in the chest with his finger accusingly. Nick only grimaced in disdain.

"Hey, y'all, settle down. We got enough shit goin' for our throats beside each other, so y'all should knock it off." Coach said calmly, taking a step between the two men. They reluctantly stepped away from each other, then exchanged soiled glares. Andy walked up to them sleepily, scratching the top of his head.

"Gentlemen, gentlemen, what is all the hubbub about?" He asked jokingly, indicating the two looking at each other like each had murdered the others' family, then pisssed on their bodies. "Is that pizza?" Andy exclaimed, his eyes widening significantly. Rochelle disentangled herself from the boys' glares, and nodded to Andy. He rushed over to the pizza box and began devouring it. The mood finally settled, and the group readied weapons, moving to push on through the city.

Ellis kicked the door open, and the five moved out into the rain. The survivors moved up the stairs outside the alley in relative piece; not a single zombie seemed to be present.

At the top of the stairs, it was a different story. It appeared that someone living had died here recently; all the zombies were crowding around something, the ones in the front gorging themselves. Rochelle made a noise of disgust, then ripped one zombies legs off with her shotgun. The infected's attention shifted to the survivors, and the group opened fire on them.

Nick made quick work of a patch of zombies with his G3, the larger rounds producing gaping holes in their bodies. Coach let loose with his M60, spraying bullet throughout the mob, decapitating several and sending limbs flying like nobody's business.

Rochelle attacked the zombies with reckless abandon, putting herself in harm's way unnecessarily if it meant she'd kill another infected. Andy killed the last of them, blasting its entrails out its back with his AA-12. Nick made his way over to Rochelle as the group made their way through some sort of downtown district and into a bar through the window.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Nick asked, searching her face. Rochelle only wiped the rain out of her eyes.

"It' nothing." She paused, then continued. "It's just that… I keep thinking that maybe one of us won't make it through this; that body was an indicator that even the smallest mistake will have drastic consequences. And after meeting you four…" She trailed off, uncertain as to how to continue.

"What?" Nick asked, lowering his voice, concerned. She looked up at his face; of the group, Rochelle was the shortest. She and Andy were the smallest of the team, probably no more than five foot eight she was.

"It's just after meeting you all, I don't want to lose you." She caught herself after too long a pause. "All of you." She continued looking up at him, searching for any kind of response. She found none; his face was stoic and composed.

"I…" Nick trailed off, looking at the ground.

"Andy to Rochelle-Land, we're going out the window and into the construction site; we heard a charger and a hunter, so keep your eyes peeled." Andy called back to them as he left through one of the windows, leaving Rochelle and Nick alone in the bar. After an awkward pause, they both filed out the same window, right back into the rain, which quickly became a torrent as the group tried to make it's way down the precarious construction zone. A deep groan could be heard, then a distinctive moo. Nick was grabbed from his place on the platform and carried down into a veritable lake of rain water.

The group looked at each other, stunned. That had to be at least a twenty foot drop. Then a yell of agony came from where he was carried off, and Rochelle jumped blindly down from the scaffolding.

"Nick!" She yelled as she landed in the water with a large splash. SShe immediately saw the charger pounding him into the ground and shot at it with a vengeance. The others quickly joined in, making mincemeat of the beast. Nick fell to the ground from its grip, landing in the water without resurfacing. Rochelle quickly picked him up out of the water and carried him to the edge of the construction zone where there was no water. She lay him on his back and checked him for any sign of life.

After a few suspenseful moments, she announced to the rest of the group that he had a heartbeat. It was ragged and uneven, however.

"Looks like he's down for the count. Guess we'll have to carry him." Coach announced, picking his supine form up by the armpits. Andy grabbed his legs, grunting.

"Shit; it' gonna be a long night." Andy stated, annoyed.

-[()]-

"How the hell are we supposed to carry him through _that_?" Andy demanded, exasperated. He and Coach had carried Nick halfway through the city, and now had to find a way to lower him into the _sewer_. "Bad enough that we have to go through the goddamn sewer. Now we have to carry his raggedy old ass through it too."

The two finally settled on have Ellis and Rochelle drop down first, clar out all the zombies, and then drop Nick down to them. The plan went over smoothly, and the two dropped Nick down to Ellis and Rochelle, who caught his unconscious form expertly. There was a sudden commotion down there, however.

"Oh my god! His heart stopped!" Rochelle yelled up to them, panicking. Coach and Andy quickly ju,ped down hastily, and Andy rolled his ankle and cursed. Coach ran over to Nick and took the defibrillator off his back, charging the chest paddles.

"C'mon, c'mon." Coach aid desperately, applying the chest paddles, then issuing a shock. Nick's body heaved upwards, and when Coach checked his wrist for a pulse, it was pronounced and healthy. Nick suddenly leapt up, totally alert.

"Ow! Quit shocking me!" He yelled at Coach, who just smiled broadly in relief. With a collective sigh of relief, the group trudged on through the sewers towards a maintenance ladder that would lead to the tunnels.

"Hey, guys! I found a candy bar! Whoops, false alarm." Ellis exclaimed, indicating a brown, chunky substance floating on the water.

"Now, sweetheart…" Rochelle began motherly, but Andy silenced her with a shake of his head. The group climbed up a yellow ladder, then through the small tunnels that were used by maintenance crews.

"Who would even take a job as a sewer repair-crewman?" Andy wondered aloud as he made his way through the cramped tunnel to the other side. There was some sort of alarmed gate that they had to use to get across the massive sewer, and before it lay a massive pile of all sorts of ammo and a tube-like device that was about the length of a pistol. Andy picked it up and put it in his pocket, just in case.

"Git ready!" Ellis yelled as he pulled the lever, opening the gate. As everyone jumped down and back into the sewer, greeted by a massive mob of zombies that made it rather difficult to run, let alone dredge through the deep water. Andy pulled the tube out of his pocket and removed the cap, revealing a long syringe. Andy shrugged and plunged it into his leg, hissing from the pain. Then his vision reddened around the edges, and he suddenly felt jumpy and uncomfortably energetic.

He bolted in the direction of the other shore, running incredibly swiftly. He could hear Ellis yell to him faintly from where he was.

"Man, don't stop runnin'!"

Andy abided, sprinting through the sludge and past countless infected towards the next ladder. He quickly climbed up it, but then felt a sudden weight hit him like a sack of bricks; the adrenaline rush was gone, and he was _tired_.

"No, no, no, not now!" He yelled, sluggishly making his way to the next gate which he opened as stars began to dance across his vision. He heard a hunter screech, and he was thrown to the ground, his head hitting unforgiving metal, and he blacked out.

-[()]-

Coach saw the hunter hit Andy from on top of the cat walk and swore. He then brought up the sights of his gun and aimed carefully at it, making sure not to hit him. He let out a few shots and let them bury themselves deep within the hunter's chest, sending it flying off of Andy. The boy didn't move even when it was gone, however, and Coach hobbled as fast as he could through the water towards the boy.

He shook him, and Andy's eyes fluttered open. The boy tried to sit up, then grasped his abdomen in pain, blood beginning to seep into his shirt. Coach helped him to his feet, then the pair rushed as fast as they could down the final catwalk.

"Fuck you!" Andy swore as he clocked a zombie in the face at the end of the catwalk. He and Coach hopped down, laying down fire on the zombies as they came at them, systematically destroying them, but taking several hits in the process. The pair made their way through a low archway, and on the other side found a ladder that had a saferoom arrow near it.

Coach climbed the ladder first, with Andy killing any zombie that came near. Then Andy slowly made his way up, grunting in pain with each rung. The two journeyed up a flight of stairs, rounded a corner, and came face to face with a smoker lying in wait, with Coach promptly obliterated with his light machine gun. The two ran into the saferoom, only pausing to close the door behind them. Andy collapsed on the floor, letting his weapon fall to the floor with a clank, his arms spread wide, his breathing fast and shallow. Noise seemed to be coming from underwater now, and he watched the ceiling. He heard Coach swear from a long way off and then bangs and ear-splitting roars.

Four figures crowded his vision, which was blurring around the edges. He smiled stupidly at them, and then one of the figures left his view. He felt his jacket being taken off, and then a muted pain in the crook of his right arm. Hi vision darkened until all he saw was a single point of light on the ceiling. _Today is Tuesday; I'll have school tomorrow_. He thought.

Then everything went dark.

**Author's Note: **Well, I only missed my self-imposed deadline by forty five minutes. That's good, right? Anyways, leave a review telling me what you thought. I always like to hear what you have to say! Until next time, The Amazing Soup.


	12. First Aid Chapter 12: Rude Awakening

**Author's Note: **It's been far too long since I last updated this story. Oh well. I've been trying to crank out a chapter for this and my other story every few days, and it is tiring work let me tell you! That's why I took a rather long break from the stories. But First Aid is back! :D Now enjoy!

Left 4 Dead 2 and its characters are property of Valve.

First Aid Chapter 12: Rude Awakening

By the time they got into the saferoom, Coach and Rochelle had been beaten, cut, bruised, and puked on. They hastily stumbled in and slammed the door on the large number of zombies following them. The two stumbled further into the saferoom. Rochelle was too exhausted to notice Andy lying on the floor, and subsequently tripped over him.

"Ow! What the hell?" She looked down at the object that had tripped her, and noticed it was Andy, his eyes closed with blood slowly seeping into his white shirt. She stepped back in surprise and bumped into something, which let out a muffled 'oomph'.

"Now, sweetie, you have to learn that you can look, but touching is gonna costcha." Nick said sarcastically, making a fake frown. Rochelle just glared at him. She pointed her finger sternly at him, and opened her mouth to say something, only to be interrupted by Ellis loud musings.

"Oh wow. That dudn't look good." The redneck said in surprise, indicating the wound on Andy's chest; now indecipherable thanks to all of the blood emanating from it. The other three hustled towards the supine boy, and observed him with concerned eyes. Fortunately his eyes were still open, but they seemed unseeing, and he quietly mumbled something under his breath before his eyes closed slowly.

They all looked at each other in alarm.

"Well that can't be good." Nick said, voicing the whole group's thoughts. As Ellis, Rochelle, and Coach scrambled to find first aid, Nick began inspecting the wound. It looked like this hunter had ripped open the scar tissue that had been forming around his old hunter-induced wound. Nick could patch this up if they had the right tools, just needed to sew up—

"That kid's got a lot of scars." Rochelle interrupted Nick's thoughts. She was standing over him, a first aid kit in hand. Nick took the small red backpack and zipped it open.

"We all do. Everyone has a lot of scars now, but hopefully we'll have time to heal when we get rescued in New Orleans." Nick said. But she was right; the kid was covered in scars. Some were small and barely noticeable, but others were long and jagged, running up and down his torso and arms.

Nick began to work. As he settled in, the other three occupied themselves however they could. Rochelle took off her long brown boots, trying to shake the sewer out of them. Coach busied himself with stocking his LMG's box clip with lots of ammo. He sat by the table with the ammunition on it and kept adding in belts so he could reload on the fly. Ellis stood watch at the door, periodically looking back into the small room to check on his buddies.

At some point in the cool silence, Ellis began whistling. It grated on Nick, but no one else seemed to mind so he didn't voice his opinion. The light-hearted tune eventually stopped, and silence fell like a blanket once again.

"So I think he'll be alright. As long as he doesn't stress this wound too much. I don't see him climbing, jumping, or taking on a tank any time soon, but he'll make it." Nick said as he rubbed the blood on his hands off on a ragged cloth on the table. The four formed a ragged circle near the table, trying to calculate their next move.

"Well, we have to move forward, but we can't just leave the kid here." Nick started off, his arms crossed against his chest.

"Well maybe those otha folks will be up there, and we can drop 'im off with them." Coach said, referring to the other three survivors they had met.

"Good idea, Coach. So if we can just find those guys-" Rochelle began, but was cut off by Ellis.

"But what if they ain't there? I mean, they already got 'un dead an' another injured; how they gonna fare against all them zombies?"

"Hopefully they'll figyuh somethin' out." Coach replied, showing his optimistic side.

"Sounds like a plan. Let's pack up and move out." Nick declared finally. He, Coach, and Ellis grabbed ammo for their weapons while Rochelle swapped her Mossberg 590 for a G36V grabbed then grabbed first aid and Rochelle and Ellis picked Andy up by the feet and arms. The five headed out of the saferoom, leaving all other thoughts but survival behind.

-[()]-

_Shit certainly hit the fan while I was napping._ Andy thought as he surveyed his surroundings. He was laying down next to the three other survivors he had met before they set out for the generator. He noticed that the young woman was standing very near him, firing rapidly at something with her two HK P2000s.

"Tank, tank! Shoot it!" She yelled to the two men behind her. They appeared to be on some sort of balcony, with a doorway leading into a two story building. The woman crouched to get better shots at the tank, her focus unwavering.

A hunter appeared in the doorway, its hooded face aimed at the woman. Andy quickly pulled one of the spare pistols in her leg holster out and shot the zombie in the face four times, its body collapsing to the floor. The woman looked at him, surprised, and then at the hunter body.

"Thanks. I owe you one." She said, only now aware that he was awake. "The name's Zoey by the way." She added, offering him a hand. He took it gratefully, and with her help situated himself in a semi-standing position. He reached into his jacket for another pistol, and after retrieving it, took up a position next to Zoey.

"I'm Andy. So where're you from?"

-[()]-

The group had been through some crazy shit, but this was the worst.

"What the fuck? Two tanks? Come on!" Nick yelled as he fiddled with the clip he was trying to put into his G3. He and the other three had managed to drop Andy with the other three survivors, go down an elevator, and half-fill the generator with zombies practically crawling out their asses, but this was just _too much._

"Y'all gotta split up! Get 'em apart. I'll take the one on tha' left!" Coach yelled over to the other three, who each had gas cans. They hesitantly dropped them and sprinted in the other direction, the second tank hot on their heels. As they made their way past the generator again, Ellis began worrying about Coach.

"Not to break yer concentration or nothin' guys, but what about Coach? No way he can take a tank on his own." Ellis said as he stopped running. The other two's eyes widened, and they opened fire on the tank that was rapidly gaining on Ellis. He turned around just in time to empty the clip of his M16 into the hulking mass before him, doing nothing but ripping off chunks of flesh from the colossal zombie.

The tank took advantage of Ellis trying to back-pedal and swung its massive fist at him. The young mechanic flew past Nick and Rochelle and landed with a thump several feet behind them. The two took their chance and took carefully aimed bursts with their assault rifles. The tanks face disappeared in an explosion of blood as the rounds slammed into its face. It let loose a feral gurgle, the most it could do with its damaged face. The beast found Ellis on the ground and raised its massive arms to smash him into the ground.

Before the tank could pound Ellis into the ground, Nick ran up to it and went fully automatic with his assault rifle in its face, the large bullets ripping the tank's head off in chunks. The zombie fell onto its knees, then onto its chest, blood gushing from what was left of its head.

"Thanks, brother." The mechanic said appreciatively to Nick as he helped Ellis up from the ground.

"No problem. Are you okay? Let me patch you up." The conman said, reaching for the red backpack strapped around his shoulders.

-[()]-

Andy saw the two tanks down below, and witnessed the group split up, Coach going out on his lonesome. He cursed under his breath.

"I hate to break up this riveting conversation, but one of my friends is in trouble." Andy told Zoey, as he went to vault over the balcony. Zoey grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"Don't be stupid; use the stairs. And I think you'll need this." She said logically, holding out an HK 417. Andy' eyes widened in surprise.

"Where'd you get that? I didn't think the U.S. Military used the 417." He stated, taking the gun.

"I thought you had a friend to save." Zoey retorted, smirking. Andy blushed, then walked towards the doorway.

"No doubt." I'm coming for ya, Coach!" He yelled as he ran into the building and down the stairs. Zoey rolled her eyes, smiling.

"Boys." She said to herself as she shot the head off of a zombie below with her pistols.

-[()]-

"Shit. This ain't gonna be good!" Coach yelled as he backed into an alley away from the tank that was pounding towards him. He raised hi M60 to his shoulder and fired, feeling the familiar kick of the stock with each shot. He kept firing at the beast, eventually sawing off the tank's arm with the immense power of the LMG. Just when he thought he had that zombie good, the gun clicked, indicating it was out of bullets. Coach hastily checked the box; all the rounds were gone.

"God damn it!" He yelled, throwing the gun down in exasperation. He patted down his person, searching for any kind of weapon; all he had was Andy's M9 pistol. He whipped it out, firing all fifteen bullets into the tank. The zombie seemed unaffected as it shambled ever closer. Just as it roared its triumph, blood spurted from various places in its chest, and it fell to the ground, finally dead.

As the body fell to the ground, it revealed Andy stepping on it with one foot, his smoking rifle in hand.

"Figured you could use some help side D." Andy said, smiling. Coach just smirked.

"I coached football, you know." He replied, walking up to Andy. Andy took it all in stride as he fell into step with Coach as they walked towards the generator.

"Basketball, football, tennis. Whatever."

As the two neared the generator, Andy walked calmly back into the building with the balcony. Coach stopped, confused.

"Where you goin', young 'un? We still gotta find four more gas cans." Coach shouted after Andy, who was already back inside the building. He emerged second later on the balcony.

"I can't exactly be running all over the place with you guys; I'm still healing. And before you talk about me killing the tank, I was standing still." Andy said, literally stopping Coach with his mouth open. Coach only frowned and gathered the dropped gas cans, pouring the fuel into the generator.

"Just one more! Find a gas can!" Just after Coach yelled this out, a hunter leapt for him, only to have its head blown off mid-jump by Zoey. Andy looked at her, impressed.

"Nice shot!" He exclaimed, and she smiled slightly.

The other three came back with Ellis holding a gas can in one hand and his M16 in the other. The three rushed to the generator, and it quickly roared to life after Ellis finished filling it. The bridge began lowering, and a horde of zombies began sprinting for the group. With the help of the other survivors, the horde was leveled, and the four patiently waited.

"Andy! Get down here! The bridge is down!" Nick yelled up to the boy as he ran across the bridge. Andy took a quick step towards the door. He stopped, turned around, and softly kissed Zoey.

"It was a pleasure meeting you." He said eloquently before vaulting over the balcony, rolling off the fall. As he sprinted across the bridge to Jimmy Gibbs Jr.'s stock car, Zoey just followed him with her gaze, blushing.

"I hate puppy love." The biker said, looking towards the car now speeding past the group.

**Author's Note: **Whoo! The Passing finished, the survivors move on to Dark Carnival. So what did you think? Good, bad, yes, no, maybe so? Leave a review, I'll give you an internetz! Also, just wanted to update this one last time before I go on vacation again. But I'll be back, I promise! Until next time, The Amazing Soup.


	13. First Aid Chapter 13: The Long Road Home

**Author' Note: **It's been a long time, my readers, but I've had many things going on; from school to volunteering to my social life, it was hard to find the time to write this. But I did! Also, on a side note, Halo: Reach is out and I want to get a hold of that. And it seems like the survivors are moving into the unlucky chapter 13. :) We'll see how _that _pans out. Now onto the story!

Left 4 Dead 2 and its characters are property of Valve. Tell me something I don't know.

First Aid Chapter 13: The Long Road Home

More driving. At this point, the whole endeavor seemed more like a road trip than a zombie apocalypse. But they were driving like bats out of hell. Andy chuckled to himself, his torpor wearing off.

"Wake up, buttercup." Nick said gruffly, the sleep still clinging to his tone. Andy stretched as much as he could in the cramped interior of the car, letting out an involuntary sigh.

"We there yet, hun?" Andy countered back at Nick. The conman just barked out a laugh.

"Don't make me laugh while I yawn. It's uncomfortable." Nick said from his position in the passenger seat. "And no, we're not there yet. We're not even close to New Orleans." He admitted, shrugging.

"Y'all, I don't care what kinda nocturnal shit you doin', but shut up; it's still night and I'm still sleepin'." Coach remarked exasperatedly. Nick and Andy immediately quieted down, but before Andy could drift into the grasp of sleep, an abrupt stop on Ellis' part sent him, Rochelle, and Coach careening into the two front seats with various curses.

"Damnit!"

"What the hell!"

"Shiiiiiiit!"

"Sorry y'all" Ellis said as he disembarked, "but looks like this is our stop."

The three let out a groan when they saw why Ellis stopped. Rows upon rows of stopped cars blocked the highway for miles. Nick just sat in his chair silently.

"We might as well get the goddamn lead out. No time to lose when you're waiting on salvation." He said, grabbing his G3 and getting out of the car.

"Deep." Andy commented, checking his HK 417, readying it for carnage yet to come.

"Amen, bruther." Ellis replied, pulling out a Glock 23.

"Shit. I lost my weapon back in that crazy gangbang back there. Anybody got 'un?" Coach inquired. Rochelle nodded, handing off a Sig Sauer 556. The four looked at her quizzically.

"What? Is it a bad idea to store weapons in the car?" She said, reading all of their minds. The four then scrambled back to the car, scrounging for weapons.

"Hell yeah!" Andy exclaimed, extracting a ludicrous amount of armaments from the car, handing them out; for Ellis an MP5k, for Nick a MSG-90, for Coach a Benelli M4 Super 90, and for himself a G36.

"Damn, Jimmy Gibbs knows his stuff." Nick said, admiring the shiny new armaments.

"Baby, now we can kick some _serious _ass." Coach exclaimed in excitement.

"Okay boys, enough of the masculine posturing. We should probably find a way to New Orleans." Rochelle butted in, always the voice of reason.

"We could follow tha highway, y'all." Ellis suggested diplomatically. Coach took a few steps forward, and let out a throaty laugh.

"Whisperin' Oaks! Shit, I used ta go there when I was a kid! We could head over there." Coach yelled ecstatically.

"Great, now we can die there as adults." Nick countered. Andy shushed him.

"What're we waiting for? Let's move." Said Rochelle as she started walking towards the stretch of cars.

"Man, I gotta bad feelin' about this…" Ellis mumbled as the group began wading through the sea of cars. The cars, although not very tall, proved almost impossible to see far past, and the group found themselves separated by thirty yards or more of car-maze.

Out of nowhere, Ellis burst past Nick, his MP5 in hand. A jockey leapt from in between the cars, catching Ellis from the back, forcing him to drop his weapon while slamming his head into the hood of a car.

"Shit!" Nick yelled, bringing up his G3 and firing three rounds into the jockey's back, sending it careening off of Ellis' head and into another car, which promptly let loose an ear0-piercing alarm.

"You have got to be joking." Rochelle said to herself, seeing the alarmed car where the two men were. It was just over forty yards away. She saw Andy and Coach running to assist the other two as zombies flooded to them between cars. She was unprepared when she heard a screech emanated from behind her, signaling the leap of a hunter. The zombie crashed into her, and she squinted her eyes shut, ready for the excruciating pain. The pain didn't come, however. She opened one eye to see the hunter slumped over, bleeding all over her pink tee-shirt.

"I got me one!" Andy yelled enthusiastically from his position beside Coach, twenty yards away. The old man just rolled his eyes.

-{()}-

"I'm all for stupid ideas, but I think this one talks the cake." Nick said cynically, looking at the massively steep hill before the group of five.

"Hate to say it, Nick, but we're going down this hill whether you like it or not." Andy said frankly. "Of course, you could always stay up here with the- Holy shit, lots of zombies!" Andy yelled in alarm, but no one turned around.

"Very funny, young 'un." Coach said disapprovingly, unaware of the massive amalgam of corpses sprinting his way. Andy just looked at them, then looked at the hill.

"Ah, fuck!" He said, then slung his HK-417 over his shoulder and jumped over the edge into the darkness waiting below.

"I gotta say, y'all, he certainly knows how ta prove his point, he does." Ellis said approvingly. He subsequently jumped onto his butt and began sliding down the veritable mountain, a joyful yell echoing in his wake. The remaining three looked at each other, then back to where Andy had jumped.

"Oh shit! Kid was right! Move yo' asses!" Coach yelled to the rest of the group as he saw the massive parade of corpses. He ran to the edge of the hill, hesitated, then began sliding down on his rear end.

"Ladies first." Nick said glibly, motioning from Rochelle to the cliff. She rolled her eyes then had her body do the same, rolling down the hill on her side. Nick was left grumbling at the top of the mountain, looking from the oncoming zombies to the ground, which was shrouded in darkness.

"What a fucking great time to be afraid of heights." Nick mumbled to himself, then squinted his eyes shut and let himself fall backwards into the beckoning darkness.

-{()}-

"Wake up, buttercup." Andy intruded into Nick's sleep, kicking him awake with the tip of his sneaker. Nick blinked several times, then scrubbed his face with his hands.

"Where am I, exactly?" The conman queried, sitting up and instantly regretting it.

"Shit, son, you at the bottom of the hill, remember?" Coach butted in, leaning over the younger man. He lent Nick his hand and yanked him up from the ground.

"Hey, I kin see tha searchlaghts right over that way. C'mon y'all." Ellis remarked, blazing a path through the wet, marshy terrain.

"Geez, I'd hate to have to go through this kinda shit again." Rochelle said, drudging through the thigh-high water. Andy stopped dead in his tracks and turned to her.

"If I haven't learned anything else from this apocalypse, I've learned to _never_ jinx myself. Now, if we have to spend hours trekking through swamp, I'll know who to blame." The boy said seriously.

"I don't know. I think the one thing I've learned is to _always_ have another weapon." Nick said earnestly. Andy grinned evilly.

"Oh, I know all about that." Andy said, a satanic grin still stretching his features. Coach frowned at him.

"You know what, young 'un? You scare me sometimes." He said as the group finally exited the water and began moving up the eerily quiet hill to the amusement park.

"I got a bad feelin' about this…" Ellis said quietly, looking around the group. Only the soft whisper of the wind made any noise; no growls or moans of wayward infected.

Andy cocked the bolt on his HK 417, bringing it to bear on the darkness around him. The others did the same.

"The only time you hear silence in a zombie apocalypse is when some _serious _shit is about to go-" Andy was interrupted suddenly by the massive form of a tank's fist colliding with his mid-section, sending him end over end back down the hill.

The other four survivors quickly reacted to the massive zombie in their midst, splitting up, with Nick and Rochelle running towards the amusement park, and Coach and Ellis gunning it towards the fence running along the edge of the park, the tank in hot pursuit.

-{()}-

Nick and Rochelle crashed through the saferoom door, narrowly escaping the acidic muck spat at them by a spitter.

"That… Was the longest… Fifty yards… Of my life." Nick said, gasping for air, one of the lapels on his suit sizzling from acid.

Rochelle didn't respond; she just collapsed onto her hands and knees, the noise of hard breathing mixing with the soft plip plip of blood on cement as an open wound on her arm bled a jagged line down from her shoulder to her elbow.

"Wait a second… Where are the others?"

-{()}-

The tank fell onto its knees, blood gushing from multiple tear and holes in its flesh from Coach and Ellis' bullets. The two men wiped sweat and grime from their foreheads, and Ellis held his throbbing arm at an angle, crimson lines running up and down the appendage.

"Damn. Those motherfuckers are hard to take out when ya only got two." Coach said to Ellis, panting. Ellis nodded, and hissed in pain at his arm. "Lemme take a look at that." Coach replied, taking the young man's arm in his gloved hands, looking over the wound.

"Don't worry. Should be fine when we find some first aid." Coach paused, examining his surroundings. "Wait. Where did all the others go?"

-{()}-

Andy lay at the foot of the hill, his feet in the swampy water, with his weapons tangled in with his coat and limbs, unconscious. He didn't notice the swift, dark shadow that descended upon him.

**Author's Note:** How's that for a cliffhanger! Am I right? Like this chapter? Leave a review or send me a message and tell me why or why not! :D Until next time, The Amazing Soup.


	14. First Aid Chapter 14: Dying to Meet You

**Author's Note: **Hopefully I can finish this chapter in a timely fashion, instead of the ludicrous time it took to finish the last. Now where were we…

Valve owns Left 4 Dead 2 and its characters.

First Aid Chapter 14: Dying to Meet You

_4 Hours after separation._

The first thing Andy felt when he woke up was intense pain from his left leg. And his back. And his head.

"Owww…" Andy let out a drawn out groan of pain as he tried sitting up without success. "One of you had better have some serious painkillers, cuz I am seriously busted up right now." He demanded of the group. When no response came, he opened his eyes, taking in his surroundings.

He was still in the swampy area of the hill just outside of Whispering Oaks. He was alone. He saw then why his leg hurt; it was twisted at an unnatural angle, and it was in dirty water. He cursed. He tried sitting up again, but to no avail; his weapons and their straps were tangled in his jacket and arms. He sighed, exasperated at his ludicrous situation.

"Damn it all to hell." He said to no one in particular, looking up at the starry sky. He noticed, then, in the from the corner of his eye a shadow that was lurking in the trees. He immediately reached into his jacket, procuring his Talon from its depths, but he failed to extricate his arm from the gun strap.

"Forget it!" He yelled, slicing the strap with his knife, freeing himself and shooting bolt upright. As he did so, however, stars formed in his eyes from the sudden pain in his back. He tried to shake them out of his eyes, looking back up at the shadow.

It lowered itself to the ground on silent, black wings, alighting on its pronged feet.

"Wow. You'd think I would have seen enough of these stupid birds back home to know one when I saw it." He said to himself as the bird examined him with black eyes. He glared daggers back at it, and it cawed and flew away. "Serves you right."

He shoved his knife back into its sheath underneath his leather coat dejectedly. Where the hell had everyone gone to? Why didn't they leave him a trail of breadcrumbs? He asked himself these questions before picking up his weapons and bringing himself to stand, albeit shakily.

"Time to get the team together." With that, the young man set off up the same hill he had already scaled, staggering up the incline with a limp, his HK 417 held loosely in his hands. As he reached the top, he silenced his ragged breathing; several common infected were meandering about around a car, with fresh blood on the windows.

"Oh no…" Andy trailed off, limping nearer to the car. When he was about ten yards from the car, he began methodically eliminating the heads of the zombies, each giving out a pleasant squish as their contents splattered the ground in a myriad of shapes. When the lat was done, Andy approached the car slowly, rifle in hand, trying to look through the window. The glass was cracked and smeared with blood on the inside, its crimson all too familiar.

He opened the door of the passenger side cautiously, his HK pointed at the ground.

What he saw broke his heart. A young man, no older than thirty, had his head rested against the steering wheel, his eyes closed. Blood ran from the top of his head to his chin, evidence of wounds unseen beneath his dark brown hair. Andy sighed; he was sick enough of this damn apocalypse as it is. The last thing he needed was a dead man that reminded him of his father.

"Fuck." Andy said quietly to himself, sighing. Just then, a short, rasping breath came from the man, and a dribble of blood ran down his mouth. Andy was instantly at alert, unbuckling the man's seatbelt and trying to drag him out of the seat. "Come on, out you go."

As Andy finally got the man out of the car and lay him on the asphalt, he saw the full extent of his injuries; they were _bad_. But maybe he could get the man's ID for the inevitable list of corpses whoever survived would have.

"Hey, buddy, can you hear me?" Andy asked the man, gently nudging the man's shoulder.

"Ye… Yeah." The man answered, turning hi head towards Andy slightly. Andy pulled the first aid kit off of his back. He unzipped the red bag and began cataloguing the man's injuries.

"Can you open your eyes?" Andy asked clinically, wiping the blood off of the man's face. He paused for the unknown person to answer.

"I think so…" He said, cracking hi eyes open ever so slightly. Andy nodded, pulling out an ointment from the red bag.

"Good. Now, do you know what other injuries you have? It would make my job a lot easier." Andy said, putting gauze on the man's head wound and applying pressure.

"Well… My head hurts like hell… And I can't feel my right arm…" He replied, resting his head on the asphalt. Andy nodded, looking him over again. The head and arm appeared to be the most serious wounds, unless he had any internal bleeding.

"Ok. I'm just going to wrap up your head and then start on your arm. I need you to keep talking. What's your name?" Andy asked casually, beginning to wrap the man's bleeding head with bandages.

"Earl…" He said quietly, closing his eyes.

"Earl. I need you to keep looking at me. How did this happen?" Andy demanded more than asked, trying to keep the man from going farther into shock. His blood pressure was probably a mess by now.

"Yeah… My friends and I… We heard that there was evac… At the carnival… So we headed there. But… Tank… Got the car… Jim and Ellie… Got into the carnival… I think…" The man said in between ragged breaths and groans.

"Good. You said you're friends escaped? Could they still be alive? I'm looking for all the help I can get." Andy replied, blood now smearing his hands from the man's mangled arm. He was sitting cross-legged on the right side of the man, his first aid kit beside him.

"Maybe…"

"Okay. Do you know how to use a gun?" Andy asked inquisitively, beginning to stitch together the gaping teeth marks on Earl' right arm.

"Yeah… Is- Is it bad that I can see a light off in the distance?" Earl asked, looking up at Andy, his jaw hanging slightly ajar. Andy sighed sadly and shook his head.

"I'll be honest, Earl. In all likelihood you will die soon. I want you to be at peace with that. I'm doing all that I can but you need to know that I can't save everyone." Andy said to Earl's face, a vacant look in his eyes, as if he was seeing through the man.

"Okay…" Earl replied, closing his eyes. "I'm… Fine with that…" The man said with a finality befitting his condition. He took a breath, and spoke no more. Andy stopped stitching and felt for hi pulse.

Earl was dead.

"Damn it." Andy said quietly. "Damn it all to _hell!_" He roared furiously into the air, becoming a little kid again. _Why can't I save anybody? _Andy thought to himself dejectedly. He gathered what was left of his first aid kit and zipped it up, slinging it upon his back. He started to walk back towards where he had been headed but stopped, taking the man's driver's license as an afterthought.

_Those murdering bastards will wish they could beg for death when I'm done for them._ Andy thought menacingly, as he checked the bolt of his rifle with a metallic clang. He saw the fence to a large wooden rollercoaster and hopped it, landing under one of the timber support beams, and looked for a way up. He had to find his way back to Coach, Rochelle, Ellis, and Nick and find those other two survivors before it was too late.

**Author's Note: **I know this chapter is ridiculously short, but that's on purpose. I was going to have several smaller chapters focusing on each of the groups, then bring them all together. The timeline really will help, I think. Questions? Answers? Suggestions? Leave a review! Until next time, The Amazing Soup.


	15. First Aid Chapter 15: All Together Now

**Author's Note: **I'm terribly sorry it's taken me this long, but I've had a lot on my plate. Here's your chapter! :D

Valve owns Left 4 Dead 2 and its characters.

First Aid Chapter 15: All Together Now

_5 Hours after separation._

"You mean we get to rock out and kill zombies? This is the best dayuh my LAHF!" Ellis yelled triumphantly from the saferoom. After a few close calls and chasing after the Screaming Oak, Ellis and Coach had made it to a saferoom almost directly adjacent to the concert area. Coach had come up with the brilliant plan of alerting a helicopter they had seen flying over the amusement park using the fireworks from the Midnight Riders' finale.

As they opened the saferoom door, a large group of rather jolly infected swarmed towards them, only to be torn apart by their weapons. They passed very few bodies, unlike everywhere else.

"They musta done a damn good job evacuatin' here—I don't see any bodies." Coach remarked as the two made their way to the concert area. Ellis nodded, and the two were greeted by an all-too common—if not somewhat unusual—sight.

There was a group of four people beating the undead shit out of a large mob of infected on the stage with various makeshift instrument-weapons.

"Ho-ly shit." Ellis exclaimed. "It's tha Midnaght Rahders!"

As Coach and Ellis scrambled onto the stage in excitement, only then did they come to realize that their fantasy was a falsehood. The four were not actually the Midnight Riders.

They were, however, Rochelle, Nick, Andy, and two people the pair couldn't identify.

"How tha hell did y'all get here?" Coach asked Rochelle incredulously.

"It's a _long _story."

-{()}-

_30 Minutes after separation_

"Shit. We have to find the others before something else does." Rochelle told Nick, pointing out the obvious. That aspect of her irked him.

"You're preaching to the choir here. I bet I know where Ellis is going to be…" Nick's voice trailed off as he viewed a poster in the saferoom for the _Screaming Oak: 'The Biggest Coaster This side of the Mississippi!'_

Rochelle examined the poster, then agreed. The two spent a long while prepping their weapons and administering first aid to themselves. There was no such thing as _too_ much preparation in a zombie apocalypse.

_3 And a half hours after separation_

As they exited the safe house, they entered the carnival. And it was a dump. Zombies were everywhere, with their unfortunate meals being devoured noisily. A zombie was in mid-bite of a finger when its face was blown off by Nick.

The two moved through the winding games and storage areas, encountering little resistance that their bullets couldn't handle.

As Rochelle opened the door, Nick promptly unloaded his G3 into a hunter that he had just kicked in the face. He looked back at the reporter, pleased with himself.

"You want a medal?"

"A kiss would do."

Rochelle blushed, but then recovered herself. She picked up the head of an unfortunate undead lying next to her.

"Here you go sweetie."

"Ha ha, very funny." Nick retorted. Despite their seeming enmity, Nick found the pair's verbal jousts stimulating. The two gradually made their way down a large slide and through a merry-go-round, much to the zombies' delight.

By the time the two made it into the next safe room, they were panting and bloody. The two sat down next to each other against the heavy metal door. When the two looked around, they both blushed.

The tunnel of love. Of course.

The pair looked at one another, and their heads came closer together. With their eyes hooded, their lips met. Rochelle let out a sigh that she seemed to have been holding in for a long time.

Rochelle brought her hand to the side of Nick's face, as she deepened the kiss. Suddenly Nick pulled back. Rochelle's eyes searched his face, and then what his eyes were bulging at near the other end of the room.

"Thanks for leaving me behind, you assholes. And in case you were wondering, yes, I saw that disturbing display." Andy's sardonic voice shocked Rochelle into a standing position. She stuttered several times, trying to formulate a comeback, but then was just silent. Nick stood slowly.

"Where the hell have you been, kid?" He asked, trying to play down his intimate moment with Rochelle. Andy snorted.

"Right where you guys left me. In that fucking swamp. I'm honestly surprised I made it here before you. Although given _that_ display, who knows what you two have been doing in the safe rooms…" Andy joked, unslinging his rifle and removing the mag with a click. "I have some fresh ammo if you need it." He added seriously, ousting the cloud of embarrassment over the other two.

Nick mumbled his thanks, then took a seat next to Andy as he began disassembling his HK. Rochelle grabbed a stool and followed suit. A painfully long silence and lots of gun-lube later, Andy stood up and pulled all the bolts and slides on his weapons, checking their functionality. Nick did the same, then grabbed as much ammo as his suit could hold and went to the door.

"Let's do this."

-{()}-

"How the _hell _did y'all beat us here?" Coach asked, astonished. "We headed straight here!"

"Not all paths are equal, you know." Piped up a man from the shadows, his glasses shining in the darkness. Coach gave him a sour look. Nick sighed.

"He's almost as bad as blondie over there." Nick stated sadly, pointing to where Andy stood. He and Nick began a prissy verbal fight, going so low as insulting each others' mothers.

"Shut up!" Rochelle yelled finally, exasperated. She walked menacingly up to Andy and Nick, who were looking at her with terror in their eyes.

"I have had three hours of sleep in the last twenty four! I have killed who-knows-how-many zombies, and I have been covered in who-knows-what! The last thing I need is two little girls insulting each other! I am on my last nerve, understand?" Rochelle screamed at them with a final snarl. The two men looked at each other and nodded quickly.

"Now then. Let's alert that chopper."

-{()}-

"Yeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" Nick yelled as he cut through hordes of zombies with his chainsaw. Metal was blasting around the arena, there were fireworks going off around him, and he was sawing through undead like a hot, serrated knife through very bloody butter. He felt like a badass motherfucker.

Andy was no doubt feeling the same thing, having discovered a drum magazine for his HK 417. He was atop the music controls, painting the walls red with the zombie bits he was making.

"This is the best fucking thing ever!" The jacketed youth yelled to Ellis, who was right behind him, wreaking havoc with a SPAS-12 he had found.

"Hell yeah! Here comes the finale baby!" The southerner yelled, rocking out on his weapon, now a makeshift guitar. Andy put walked up to a zombie crawling towards him. He kicked it onto its back and brought the stock of his rifle crashing home on the infected's head, spraying blood and brains over the ground.

"The chopper's here! Let's move! Go, go, go!" Nick yelled, waving the rest of the group towards the helicopter, which was hovering in the stands.

Just as Rochelle began running, a massive slab of concrete slammed into the ground where she had been. She swore as she ran as fast she could, dropping her G36 in favor of greater speed.

"Field of fire on that tank!" Jim yelled, quickly swapping his empty mag with one from his plate carrier. Turned out, he was military. Go figure.

"Bring it on! I got enough for you, bitch!" Ellie screeched from the helicopter, steaming shells from her SAW raining down on the stands. The remaining four quickly clambered into the chopper as the tank let loose a roar and threw a large chunk of ground at the helicopter.

"Whoah!" Jim yelled as the rock zipped through the cabin of the chopper and collided with Rochelle, who lost her balance and fell backwards.

"No!" Nick screamed as he swiftly caught her arm with both of his. The two exchanged a look as Nick pulled her back to safety. "Not on my watch."

"Aww, ain't that cute." Coach jibbed at the pair, smiling. The whole group sat back into the seats of the helicopter and smiled. They were finally safe. Andy looked into the sunrise as it crept past the horizon.

It was going to be a good day.

**Author's Note: **Now there you go. Three down, three to go. I plan to start up this story again. I was thinking about giving it up, but I was inspired. :D As always, any feedback is appreciated. Also, I'm sorry about all the syntactical error in my last chapters. It's rather embarrassing. . Until next time, The Amazing Soup.


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